Secret Life
by KT-chan88
Summary: When Kaiba Seto 'accidentally' kicks a soccer ball at Katsuya, he didn't expect this outcome, oh and Jou and Honda made a bet, Honda loses...
1. Chapter 1

Heiress

Fifty-five percent.

Never let it be said that Kaiba Gozaburo was not a tactical man. A man plague by moments of carelessness perhaps; but then almost all men of power were prone to be. Kaiba Seto himself was known to be careless from time to time. And there are things that Gozaburo can predict about you before you even thought of it yourself.

Careless.

Unfortunately for the Kaiba brothers, this time he was one step ahead of them, due to the carelessness on Kaiba Seto's part.

Even in death, the late Kaiba is a master tactician. Fifty-five percent of Kaiba Corporation shares were held frozen, unknown by anyone, just waiting for the true blood child of Gozaburo to claim them. There was no time limit. Which means the heiress, the daughter, may pop up anytime to claim these shares, claim ownership over the company that Kaiba Seto had sweated, bled and sold his soul for, just by turning up.

Kaiba Seto himself, only owns twenty-five percent and these he'd forced and coerced from the Big Five, as the owner of the biggest shares, outside the fifty-five percent, he had the right to the CEO's chair, but for how long?

At first, he'd assumed that Gozaburo had no natural children anymore aside from Noa. Hence the relief when the boy was incapacitated inside a computer systems. However, just over three weeks ago, his lawyers brought in papers of a registered Kaiba Katsuko, who would be eighteen years old this year.

Further investigations turned up more evidence of this child's existence. However, aside from a name, a possible age, gender and eye colour there was nothing else for investigators to go with. And brown eyes are a dime to a dozen, almost all Asians have brown eyes, and not to mention the mutt, and his shark hair friend Honda. The only thing that puts them out of the running is their sex.

Mokuba, being the ever optimist, announced that at least they only have to look at half of the population instead of the whole thing. Right, look on the bright side, just half of Domino would be what? Thirty thousand? Or was it closer to forty thousand? That's assuming that the girl is still in Domino, unlikely according to Kaiba Seto's calculation. If _he_ had been in Goazaburo's shoes, he would have sent his child somewhere far away, like France or America, not stick her around Domino.

Although, if the mad man's sick humour was anything to go by, chances are he might have stashed his daughter right at the Kaiba Mansion's doorstep, just for the fun of seeing Kaiba Seto hunting after a non existent blood child overseas.

The man must be laughing in his grave by now.

Glaring straight ahead, Kaiba switched the heavy metal briefcase to his left hand, that damn thing is bloody heavy, but unfortunately the lab still haven't come up with a lighter bullet proof material for his lap top. Something that he absolutely must have, due to his unfortunate run ins with crazy gun waving idiots.

As he rounded a tall hedge, something snagged his coat and he was roughly jerked backwards. With a furious expression, Kaiba whirled around, and found himself further tangled up in a rose bush. Okay, note to self, never walk by rose bushes in coat. He'd only done so since there seemed to be a large amount of girls laying siege on the normal route he took, ready to bombard him with those crazy 'love lunches' spurred by Japanese anime fad.

Unfortunately, all this thinking doesn't help him get out of the bush; therefore, settling his briefcase down, Kaiba began the painful process of untangling himself. Damn those thorns for being so prickly.

"Jou-kun,"

He pricked a finger. Who dares to interrupt the Great Seto Kaiba while he untangles himself from the clutches of the evil rose bush?

"I- my name is Nakamura Kimiko, and I have admire you for a long time."

Okay, breath, you are Kaiba Seto, you can breath, there are lot's of Jous around, like, like that Jouken, Jounoushi and Joey, she's probably did not even meant a Japanese name even… Oh, and who on earth would admire a mutt like that even, hah! No way it could be that loser dog; no one admires loser dogs, right?

"W-will you go out with me?"

The distinctively female voice floated to the person hidden by the shrubberies around them. Who was currently sucking at a bleeding finger rather grumpily. Why can't that stupid girl bring this up somewhere else?

"Kimiko, I-"

That voice!

It's him! It's him! It's him! It's him! It's him!

Okay, stop, halt, shock, right, shock is making him acting this way, right, must pull coat away from roses, right. Now, let go you stupid symbol of all things evil. Kaiba glared ferociously at the bush, this is entirely its fault.

"I'm really happy that you like me so much,"

Kaiba stopped tugging. There was a sharp intake of breath, but he couldn't tell whether it was from him or the girl. Of course it must be the girl, why should this involve him at all? There is nothing about the mutt that he even like, the mutt is messy, stupid, noisy, eats too much and would probably develop diabetes, high blood pressure and gout from all those food he consumes. Not to mention obesity, except that mutt had managed to stay slim all this time, always wearing those stupid little shorts to tempt people into looking those long slim legs that stretches on forever.

"But, I-"

Tears swelled in the large blue eyes of one Nakamura Kimiko, unconsciously the eavesdropper's hand clenched over a bunch of thorns, causing it to bleed. Both waited in bated breath.

"I'm in love with someone else,"

"WAAH!"

From the shrubberies, a girl ran helter skelter away from a startled blonde. On the other side of the hedge where a rose bush blooms all year round, a small strip of white cloth was left blowing in the wind. Rivulets of blood stained the cloth red in places where the thorns are bent and broken, revealing casualties of a fierce fight that had taken place between the owner of the cloth and the bush.

WAAH!

Kaiba Seto dashed like the wind to the back of the school, where he had ordered the limousine to wait for him. Wrenching the door open, he threw himself onto the leather covered interior, turning on the air conditioning to 'full'. The cool air felt like nothing against his hot cheeks, and no he had not just run away, he just have an important meeting at Kaiba Corp. that's all. Something about an heiress, oh, and must fetch Mokuba, too.

"Drive faster you fool!" He barked at the unfortunate chauffer, who was driving too slowly for his taste. Mokuba would be all lonely and frightened on his own at school…

He was clutching the briefcase like a shield in front of him; part of his beloved coat is now torn, leaving an ugly rip. This is all the mutt's fault, why does he have to make a confession of love so suddenly like that anyway? Didn't he know that it's prudent to wait for someone to confess, then falling all over himself to return that love?

Stupid mutt.

The next day dawn bright and cheery for Jounouchi Katsuya as he made his way to the cafeteria, Life for him is currently on a Good mode. His parents were finally talking, which means he gets to see Shizuka that more often, and his dad has finally gotten hold of a job, as a gardener for the neighbourhood no less. The neighbours had gathered a collection and paid the elder Jounouchi a sum of money to maintain their blocks. It made the neighbours very happy to see their blocks blooming with flowers, so much so that they sometimes even give free cookies to the Jounouchis much to Katsuya's delight, and free unused gardening tools to the old man who treasured them like a kid with new toys on Christmas.

He never knew the elder Jounouchi likes flowers this much, kinda creepy whenever he thinks about it.

Of course, Life at home is Good, but school life is even Better. With him being the star of the track team, people finally recognize Jounouchi Katsuya as someone other than Yugi Mutou's faithful shadow. Really, it sucks sometimes to be sidelined, not that he isn't appreciative of what Yugi had done for him in the name of friendship and heart of cards, but sometimes, just sometimes, Jou felt like he was losing himself in the brilliant presence of the little guy.

Absently he smiled at a group of cheerleaders who were waving their pom poms at him, blissfully unaware of the hostile glares of the other boys. His attention was taken by the sick feeling at the pit of his stomach, making the usually bright grin looked a bit forced. Surely it can't be that time already?

"Hey, Jou!" Honda, his best friend clamped an arm around his throat, nearly choking the blonde "Heard, you fend off another one yesterday,"

"Umf?"

The combination of sick feeling and lack of oxygen was getting into Katsuya; quickly he shook off the offending arm, "Keep your tentacles to yourself, Honda," he growled, "or I might just bite it off,"

"Aww, come on, Jou, Kimiko-chan was the star swimmer of this school, how could you even think about rejecting her?"

"How d'ya knows it's her?" asked Jou suspiciously.

"The whole school knows, there's even a bet on who's next on your babe killer list, and there's this big one on who's your true love is,"

"…, you say it like I do it deliberately,"

"Anyone who rejects five girls a week is doing it deliberately,"

"Trust me on this, Honda, I am so not doing this deliberately, I mean, if they don't declare their love, I won't be rejecting them now, would I?"

"Whatever, just tell them your true love and put them out their misery would ya?"

Jou opened his mouth; at Honda's 'innocent' expression he closed it back again. "Very smooth, bro," he growled, "I'm not telling you anything,"

"Come on Jou, who do you really like? I could make big bucks out of this one,"

"Save it, bud, I'm not telling you anything,"

"Come on, just a teeny tiny hint?"

"For you and your betting board? Let me think about it, nah!"

"Come oooon," Honda clamped on to Jou's waist, "Pleeeeeease, in the name of friendship, I beg yooooouuu,"

At the curious stares of Yugi, Anzu and Bakura, Jou snatched a piece of mint candy from his pocket and chewed furiously. Pointedly ignoring Honda, he said to them, "How the hell did we put up with his presence anyway?"

"Well, he is your best friend," smiled Yugi.

"Oh, right, kinda hard to remember why sometimes,"

"Jou! That's not very nice," scolded Anzu sternly, but there's a gleam in her eye that tells him she wasn't serious, "all he wants is the secret of your success,"

"Yeah, tell us!"

"Even Otogi didn't get this many followers like you,"

"My secret in track?" Jou gave them a blank look, "Why, hard work and training, of course, everyone know th-"

"No! The Girls!" the boys practically screeched.

Anzu was suddenly overcome by a coughing fit.

Before Katsuya had a chance to reply, a small parcel was shoved into his hands, "Jounouchi-kun! I made this for you this morning, so Ihopeyouenjoyit!"

A cloud dust; and the mystery girl with no name was gone, leaving a carefully wrapped box lunch in Jou's lap.

"See? That's what I meant! How did you do it?" groaned Honda, "We've spent years doing the same stuff, studying the same things, how come only you get the girls?"

"Guess I'm just better good looking than you, best friend," teased Jou.

Honda appeared to consider this seriously, "Do you think it might work if I dyed my hair blonde?"

There was a series of puking noises and ewws!

Jounouchi sighed, unwrapping the parcel he was greeted with pink rice surrounded by various yummy tit bits popular in the 'love lunches' spurred by the Japanese anime craze. On the up side, it meant free food. As for the down side? Well…

He pushed the rice in front of Honda, "Wanna bite?"

"Huh?" Everyone looked at him like he'd sprouted horns. Anzu even checked his temperature. Yugi was looking at him with his large purple eyes, "are you feeling alright, Jou?"

He grimaced, "Look, the coach put me on a diet, says I eat too much,"

General snickering.

"Ha ha, funny," he growled, "so you want it or not?" he glared at his supposed best friend.

Honda immediately shovelled the pink and white creation into his mouth.

From a darkened corner of the cafeteria, a pair of blue eyes had them under observation. Kaiba Seto is a man of great concentration for details, before venturing on a new area of interest; he would have preferred to have the time to study his subjects first. Whether it be an opponent, a new game, or even a new type of food. And no, Kaiba Seto does not do spontaneous if he could help it. Hence the great dislike for oden, there are just too many possibilities lurking within the murky depths of that type of food. A mixed pot of everything, hah, the day you see Kaiba Seto willingly down that soup, will be the day when, when, he gave up Kaiba Corp. willingly.

In other words, never.

Hence, before arriving at school, the great CEO of KC had gone through several books related to the subject at hand. From psychology to Shakespeare and even the dubious but infinitely graphical data from graphic novels, aka comics, all these he'd studied to better arm himself with the knowledge to deal with the vastly tricky question of one Jounouchi Katsuya's love interest.

Of course, to do this, he must first find out whether the blonde was in love at all. If he isn't then all the energy gone looking for such non existent person would be wasted. And Kaiba Seto hated such wastes. According to the information he'd accumulated, one of the first signs of love would be a significant loss of appetite. Hmm…

Of course, the blonde could be sick that day, no reason at all to pin this solely on loss of heart. Let's see, symptom number two, day dreaming, hah, the blonde day dreamed ALL the time. What kind of stupid book is this? Symptom three, brooding and the tendency to avoid familiar company, let's see…

Four tables away, the blonde was smiling at something Yugi had said, but made no attempt to make any jokes in return as per usual. Also, he was sitting to the left of Honda, who was sitting next to Yugi, next to which was Anzu. Usually the blonde and the brunette girl would flank the left and right of the king of games. Could this be considered as 'tendency to avoid familiar company'?

There also seemed to be a dark look lurking in the brown eyes, kind of like the time Jounouchi was under the spell of the Millennium Rod. Only, not as extreme, just, slightly. Scowling, Kaiba glared at the blonde, why couldn't he just give some specific symptom? Kaiba scowled some more at his notes, could it be that the blonde knew what he was doing and was deliberately being vague?

Shaking off that ridiculous thought, Kaiba set on symptom number four. Secret glances.

…, unless the blonde had a fetish for candy wrappers, symptom number four is not helping any. Jounouchi was staring intently at a candy wrapper, occasionally looking up to smile at something one of the others said. Why couldn't the blonde just cooperate and steal a secret glance at someone, anyone? Without a tangible target within reach Kaiba could only glare helplessly at the situation at hand. Knowing who the blonde liked would have given him ample pleasure in crushing the love interest, destroying the marked target would show that he, Kaiba Seto is still the greatest and the only one commendable of Jounouchi Katsuya's attention.

Wait, that didn't sound quite right.


	2. Chapter 2

2Revelation

Phys Ed used to be Jounouchi's favourite subject, no home work, no lectures, no boring time spent drooling over desks, and best of all, the teachers love him. He is, after all the Domino High star athlete. Unlike other subjects, there isn't much attention paid to sports, so the students are pretty much left on their own. The teachers, namely Mr. Z and Mrs. K are more than willing to kick back and relax while the blonde worked with zeal for each and every trophy that decorated their walls.

Ten minutes to go time, Jounouchi did his best to suck in his breath. No good, the bulges are still there, peering annoyingly through the thin tank top he had. Scowling, he glared at the mirror, no good. Perhaps, if he'd let go of that last piece of taco last night…

Even his coach was noticing it; he had put on weight, getting heavier on the hips and other areas... Not good for a runner like him. How the hell was he going to explain the weight gain? It's not like he wanted to gain weight, it, just, happened.

Nothing he did seems to get rid of those unwanted bulges, extra running, extra sit ups, push ups only seemed to encourage their growth, finally as a last resort, drastic cut down in food supply. It work, somewhat, at least the growth slowed down a little, therefore theoretically, it, is not, working. They just kept growing, and growing, and growing, and…

Spying a first aid kit, Jounouchi quickly unlock the catch with a practiced flick and took out a long roll of bandages, five minutes to go time, enough for what he had in mind. Half an hour of warming up later Jou found himself panting for breath, okay, maybe the bandages around the chest isn't the brightest of ideas yet.

A shrill whistle interrupted his thought.

"Okay people! Form two teams! I want all of you guys to participate, that goes for you too Mr. Kaiba! Go on, move it!"

Jounouchi sweat dropped at the tone, wondering what Kaiba is thinking now.

Unusually good mood for once, Kaiba apparently decided to let that remark slide; instead, he sauntered over to one side of the field, settling himself in one of the offensive positions of the football team. Jou and Yugi automatically picked the other side out of habit. Honda, having pissed off at being almost scratched to pieces by angry girls for 'stealing' Jou's lunches, took Kaiba's side. Ryou sided with Yugi, as usual, while Otogi placed himself in defence position with Honda.

The game began swift and deadly, with Kaiba and Jounouchi charging in at the ball, while Jou was built for speed, Kaiba more than made up for sheer power and strategy. The game finished its first 20 minutes with 1 - nil, Kaiba. Unwilling give up, Yugi brought the team together for a quick talk. Despite his diminutive form Yugi remains the ultimate strategist to Jou, when the time out was over, the blonde was bouncing confidently on his sided of the field.

Through some complex passing, Jounouchi managed to get pass Kaiba and landed a goal using Honda's face as a spring board of sort to secure the ball into the net. As predicted, the same trick couldn't be used on Kaiba; he mercilessly attacked the Yugi team, landing two goals in a row. Much to Jou's displeasure.

Half time came and went.

After a cheery pep talk, Jou felt ready to rumble again.

The second half began pretty much the same, until Yugi somehow managed to snatch the ball from Kaiba, and passed it along to Ryou. Who gave it a swift kick to one of the other boys of their team. Running way ahead of the ball, Jou gave a shout, and the ball was kicked to him well above the head of the all the players.

"Otogi! Stop him!" Shouted Honda, as best friend, he knew what Jou is capable of and that is Not a good thing for their team now.

Unfortunately, dice boy still wasn't sure what to do; he moved forward in an attempt to block the blonde. However, Otogi was never Jou's target, with three feet to spare; Jou suddenly skidded to a halt, turned and launched himself into the air, executing a perfect bicycle kick. The ball zoomed pass Otogi's ear, nearly grazing an earring, landed hard on the ground and bounced back with deadly accuracy towards the goal. The keeper was too stunned do anything but stare.

Breathing heavily, Jou gave Yugi a thumbs up, and weak smile. That kick had taken its toll on him, as well as all the running around. He still couldn't breathe properly, and was starting to feel sick again. Damn that last piece of taco. Sensing the weakness in the enemy, Kaiba moved in for the kill, with a vicious kick, he sent the ball hurtling towards Katsuya, attraction not withstanding against the competitive streak he had been born with.

With Bakura standing just behind him, the blonde damn himself for being heroic and took the blow. It plowed right into his stomach. He felt his teeth clicked together from the forced and the metallic taste of blood fill his mouth simultaneously with the acidic content of his empty stomach. Whiteness filled his vision; distantly he felt the tiny frantic shout of a worried Yugi, like it was happening miles and miles away. The smell of wet grass and dirt filled his senses, his vision turned blue flecked with white. It took him a moment to realize he was staring at the sky, with clouds that shaped like doughnuts and cotton candy.

The last thing he remembered was the harsh sound of Kaiba shouting, yelling at something…

Jounouchi Kyosuke senior stumbled uncertainly into the bright lights of the hospital lobby. Aside from a frantic message left on the phone, there was nothing else to clue him in on his son's whereabouts. A small scream on his left alerted his attention, and immediately he shifted to defensive mode. But it was only the night shift nurse, who looked like she'd seen a ghost floating naked before her in all its inglorious glory.

Heh, that young Katsuya had always been afraid of ghosts.

Shaking that random thought from his head, he lumbered closer to the counter, where the tiny looking nurse shrank back fearfully. Okay, now this is when being over 7 feet tall gives you the disadvantage. People became afraid of you for no good reason. Of course, he thought, as he absently rubbed the blonde stubble on his unshaven chin; there may be other reasons why people are afraid of him as well.

Leaning an elbow on the counter, he flash a mega watt smile at the frightened woman, and spoke in his best charming accent, "Hiya, Lady," he sniffed the air around her, Christian Dior?" That earned him a surprise but nervous nod from the frightened nurse.

"Nice," he grinned again, this time the woman gave a tiny smile back.

Gotcha.

"Are you sure it's this floor Honda? Maybe we should ask the nurse again."

"Uh, sure, this is where most of the minor injury patients stayed, you know, the one night probation thing,"

"Look, there's one of the nurses, I'll go ask," said Anzu, hurrying forward.

Yugi and Honda continued looking at the narrow beds placed haphazardly in the room. There was a bus accident earlier, and every bed is occupied, even the floors are lined with thin mattresses filled with groaning patients. Haggard looking nurses darted quickly between them like overworked waitresses on late shifts. The smell of blood mixed with antiseptics was thick in the air, if their blond friend is there, there seemed little hope of finding him that night.

Finally, Anzu returned, a stormy look on her face.

"None of them seems to have Jounouchi Katsuya on their lists," she said tightly, nose wrinkled against the smell, "That one even suggest we go look for him in the morgue, the nerve of her,"

Yugi almost choked at that, even Honda paled a little, but he recovered quickly, "I don't think she really means that, let's just go look for Jou ourselves, he's gotta be here" he gave the jammed packed room a sweeping gaze, "… somewhere…"

"Well, then, let's start lookin-"

"I'm afraid you three will have to leave now," A stern voice said, it was the nurse, the one who told Anzu to go to the morgue, "The doctor is coming to make his rounds soon and he won't be happy to see you here,"

She made shooing motions and more or less manhandled them out of the room. Within minutes, they found themselves standing outside the emergency ward, door slammed in their faces.

"Well, I guess that's that," said Honda.

"What do you mean? We still have to find Jou-"

"Listen, Jou's tougher than that, I mean, I know he fainted after Kaiba dealt him that football, but still, this is Jou we're talking about. We'll probably see him in school tomorrow all smug about that bicycle kick of his."

Yugi sighed, "May be you're right," He attempted a bright smile.

"We'll look for him again tomorrow if we don't see him in school," promised Anzu.

The smile turned genuine.

Jou awaken to the familiar, yet unwelcome smell of antiseptics and blood. It was the smell of a hospital room, a cramped hospital room to be précised, filled with the odours of unwashed bodies and the groans of other patients in pain. Jounouchi Katsuya hated waking up in a hospital. Usually it meant coming out of the bad end of a fight, or a run in with the more colourful characters in Yugi's life. Of course, that would mean waking up in a private, three bed room, with the absence of the smell of unwashed bodies and blood.

This time Jou isn't so lucky, heaped with the rest of the poor population, he was lucky to have a bed at all, never mind the lack of partition curtains. He'd just lost another game against Kaiba Moneybags Seto, puked blood in front of all his friends, said friends seemed not to care enough to visit him, his only sister miles away from Domino City.

Things can't get worse after this, right?

"Hello little Missy, got in'ter a fight 'gin?"

Okay, Jou could stand corrected; wearily he glared at the grinning teeth shining brighter than the golden bush that surrounds it.

"Buzz off dad,"


	3. Chapter 5

3welcome home

"You know, Shizuka, when I was your age, I had two beautiful daughters and was pregnant with another son…" An old woman with purple hair and matching dress sat sipping tea at the Kawai household. Sharp grey eyes observed the two younger women seated nervously on the couch, tensed and unnerved at being put on observation.

"How nice," Mrs. Kawai did her best to smile, "Don't you think so, dear?" she turned to her daughter with a hopeful look in her eyes.

Shizuka did her best to grin brightly and looked interested. This is her grandmother to be after all. But really, all the talk about her being single at her age was really starting to get on her nerves. She's only 17 after all, only just beginning to enjoy a school girl's life. Certainly not planning to settle down with 3 kids by the time she turned 19.

The phone rang, much to the red head's relief. Hearing her would be step-grandmother's reminiscing about her past life was getting annoying, especially with all those not so subtle hints.

Blessing whomever was on the other end, she grabbed the phone eagerly, "Hi, this is Shizuka speaking,"

"That had better be a boy," muttered the old lady, fumbling with the grey scarf around her neck.

"Honda, how sweet of you to call," said Shizuka, loudly.

Mrs. Kawai tried not to smile triumphantly.

Feeling unreasonably crossed, Shizuka turned away from the two ladies to focus on the phone.

"Is everything alright? You don't usually call during this time,"

Two minutes later, the phone was slammed back to the hook, and the younger Kawai ran all the way to her room. There was a series of doors and cupboards slamming, until finally, she emerged in warm travel clothes, an overnight bag in hand.

"Shizuka! What is the meaning of this?"

"Sorry, mom, it was nice talking to you Mrs. Brown, but I have to go now."

"Where are you going!"

"To Domino, Katsuya's been hospitalized,"

"You- get back here!"

Undaunted, the small girl resumed her journey to the door, not looking at her enraged mother.

"Shizuka!"

There was a disapproving look on the old woman's face as she witnessed the scene before her. "What an awful girl, forgetting her place as a daughter," she observed over a cup of tea. "And who's this Katsuya anyway?"

"Katsuya is, he's- I mean-"

"Is it some hooligan your daughter is seeing? I must say, I afraid I can't allow my other grandchildren near such disrespectful character,"

"Of course not!" It was said more sharply than intended. "I mean, my daughter is seeing no such person,"

"Humph, it better not be,"

"Mama, are you coming?" Shizuka was on the phone again, this time it was to call a taxi.

The woman almost flinched, "Me?" It came out like a squeak.

"Yes, you, mama" Shizuka answered quietly, "Are you coming with me or not?"

Mrs. Brown's grey eyes gleamed behind steel glasses, helplessly, Kawai Yuriko struggled to regain composure; this is her last chance for marriage and happiness. This has to work. All she had to do is pass this old woman's inspection…

"I certainly am not, why, there is no need for me to be involve with your friend's affairs." She said brightly, "Really dear, if you are that concern, we can see your friend tomorrow…"

Brown eyes pleaded silently with her daughter, don't tell, please, don't tell.

But it was too late, the normally soft doe eyes cooled with disappointment, how could you? It countered silently, how could you?

"Katsuya's your son, mama, how could you forget that?"

Silence had never been so loud.

Averting her eyes, Shizuka broke contact with the woman she had known as her mother for 17 years. Her brother needs her now, and as she'd promised, she would be there for him, no matter what.

Shizuka tried to sit patiently in the taxi, but nothing could quell the bad feeling crawling up her spine. Something had happened to Katsuya, she just knew it. Impatiently she tapped her foot against the floor, she crossed and re-crossed her arms a few times, than started tapping again.

Tap tap tap

Heaving a large sigh, she grabbed a bit of her hair and started braiding it, loosened it, then twisting it to three braids before starting to tap her feet again. Whilst braiding her hair, absently she wondered if Katsuya still wears his hair in that wild messy nest. Being his sister, she had a moral duty to make sure her brother looks his best at all times.

Mrs. Kawai finally snapped. "Would you please stop fidgeting?"

The small red head glared at her mother, "You don't have to come, you know?"

"Of course I have to. Katsuya's still my concern,"

"Says you," muttered Shizuka, "You only came to escape that nasty Mrs. Brown."

"Of course I didn't! And Mrs. Brown isn't nasty."

They exchanged a crossed look between them, before settling down on their respective side of the car. Backs to each other. Silence reigned once more in the car. Even the foot tapping had stopped. It went on for a few miles, bright lights streak past their windows like small stars, creating a twilight zone feeling.

"I don't like him," came the quiet admission, breaking the small silence.

"What now?" sighed Mrs. Kawai.

"Peter Brown," said Shizuka, "I don't like him,"

"I'm sure, in time you-"

"I still won't like him," said Shizuka stubbornly, "Please don't marry him, mama,"

What could she say? The mother of Peter Brown obviously doesn't like her either, thus ruining any chances she might have had for the accountant. So the promise should be easily kept. Waving an imagery goodbye to her future fiancé she said tiredly, "I won't be marrying him, dear,"

"Promise?" there was an anxious look in those warm brown eyes.

"I promise, dear,"

"… I still like papa better,"

Mrs. Kawai swallowed. Now this is getting complicated.

"Mama?"

"… so do I, dear, so do I,"

It was closed to midnight by the time they arrived at Domino City. An accident involving two busses had slowed the traffic to a crawl, leaving them more time to think about other things. Like where are they going to stay for the night and stuff like that, Shizuka had planned to stay with Anzu at first, but that was when she had counted on arriving before 7pm, and meeting the gang at the hospital.

However, there was no time for all that now as they both hurried down the corridors towards the emergency wards.

"Do you know where Katsuya is?"

"No," came the breathless answer. "Not really,"

"What!" Mrs. Kawai shrieked, skidding to a stop immediately. "Then what on earth are we running for?"

"Um…"

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my favourite little red head,"

"Papa!" Happily, Shizuka leap into the strong arms like a small child. "Papa! I'm so glad to see you!"

Mr. Jounouchi grinned, swinging her around, "And how's my baby girl today?"

Mrs. Kawai closed her eyes, this is getting too complicated.

"What, no hug for me, ma?"

Leaning casually against the wall was Katsuya, looking the part of the stylish gangster. All blonde good looks and cocky grin, the only thing that betrays his brief stay in the hospital was the rather pallid condition of his face.

"You looked terrible, Katsuya,"

The blonde rolled his eyes, "Gee, thanks, ma, you're look pretty hot, too."

"Mom's right, you looked awful," said Shizuka, "Why don't we go home now, I'll make you my famous curry chicken with rice," she smiled coaxingly.

"There's no time for that now," said Mrs. Kawai, "It's late and we still haven't book a place to stay-"

"Aw, you kin stay at our place, love," interrupted Mr. Jounouchi, "after all," he continued with a grim smile, "we're practically family,"

When Mrs. Kawai still hesitate, Shizuka said loudly, "Katsuya, you looked awfully skinny, maybe I should STAY with you to fatten you up a bit,"

"Shizuka!"

""What? I'm just saying Katsuya's too thin, don't you think so too?"

"Well, hell, missy, you're all hair on sticks with big eyes, where'd all your dinner go?"

"Probably inside you," snapped Mrs. Kawai at her ex-husband, "YOU look like you could use a diet yourself," she glared meaningfully at the pot belly hanging over his jeans.

"That ain't fair, darlin'" The kicked puppy look sat very wrongly on his bushy face, "It's all that binge eatin' and all that missin' ya,"

Mrs. Kawai flushed, how dare he flirt with her in front of the children?

Sensing a fight was about to brew, Katsuya suddenly leaned heavily against Shizuka, who squeaked at the sudden shift of weight and pretended to groan in pain. Granted, it sounded a bit fake, but it brought on desired results. Mrs. Kawai was convinced to stay at the Jounouchi residence, and thus creating a possible chance of reconciliation between the two parents. Something the two siblings had hoped for, and through a brief eye contact, agreed to work at together.

"This is no house, this is a sty,"

Was the first remark Mrs. Kawai made when entering the Jounouchi residence. Indeed, the cigarette butts made a huge mound on the living room table, burying the ashtray from sight, more were stuffed into bloated beer cans and were tossed carelessly onto the floor. Some crushed by feet, were spilling out its yucky, ashy yellow content, even Shizuka had to reconsider her decision to stay with her brother.

"The kitchen's much cleaner," offered Kyosuke, "We jus' ain't s'pectin' company, see?"

"Erm, maybe we'll just go stay somewhere else, the inn on the 23rd street should still be open…"

"Jus' to the kitchen, love, ya looked like ya could use a coffee first," coaxed Kyosuke.

Katsuya just rolled his eyes, "Dad, your living room is worst that the streets, what makes you think they want to see yer' kitchen?" he said in a strange mixed or Brooklyn and normal English.

"Dat's 'cause it's your domain, Missy," he chuckled, "Wait till they see it, bet ya' a hundred quid their eyes'll pop out,"

Jou rolled his eyes, "Whatever,"

"Come on, poppet, ya wouldn't wanna dis'point ya ol' pa now, do ya?"

Shizuka swallowed nervously, and made to take off her shoes.

"Eh, don't be bother'd doin' that here, ya kin leave ya shoes in the dining room."

Bravely, the Kawais trailed after Kyosuke through the living room, picking their way carefully across the badly littered floor. Slowly, they made their way to a locked door with the words 'Keep Out' taped on it. There was small homemade shoe rack beside it.

"What now?"

"Eh, Missy, where be the keys?"

Jou just pressed his mouth into a thin line at his father's show of dramatics and tossed a pair of keys at him. The old man's eyes gleamed, kissed the keys and unlocked the door. After the muffled click, Jou held out his hand.

"Eh, what?"

"The keys, pop,"

Grumbling, the tall man unwillingly yielded they keys, Mrs. Kawai and her daughter watch this exchange with interest, and a spark of hope. Perhaps this won't be so bad after all?

Kyosuke pushed open the door and gasps of wonder escaped the women. The kitchen fairly glitter with cleanliness and polish, while no household designers would award this kitchen for style or charm, it certainly fits 'functional' and 'clean'. With awe, Shizuka realised she could see her face on the ancient aluminium fridge, and that most of the kitchenware, though mismatch and showed signs of wear, were arranged in perfectly symmetrical way.

"Wow,"

"I agree," murmured Mrs. Kawai. Her own kitchen looks almost shabby by comparison.

"I couldna never find nothin' here," muttered the older Jounouchi darkly, "dis jus' ain't natural,"

"Natural or not, it satisfy my inner need for order," announced Jou brushing past them, "Now two rules, one, shoes outside, and two, you messed it, you clean it, clear?"

Murmurs of acquiescence.

"Good,"

Strange how you believe to know someone so well, and yet, there are times when some things about them just blow you over and you go, well, I never knew that. For Shizuka, this equals to a great culture shock as she entered her brother's room for the first time in her life. It was even more shocking than the conversation they had had earlier.

After the late supper, consisted of fried eggs, leftover rice and oyster sauce, which surprisingly, tasted much better then it sounds, the small family sat around the dining table which was cleaned of cigarette butts and beer cans. Through some bullying, Mrs. Kawai managed to force her ex into helping her to clear out the immediate rubbish in the living room, removing some of the stench and germs as their children worked on the food in the kitchens.

Hence the room looked almost normal by the time food was ready. After the dishes were washed and dried, there came the next immediate question. Where to sleep.

"Why doncha jus stay with lil' Missy here, love,"

"Kyosuke! You can't expect them to share a room,"

"Why not? Katsu ain't gonna do nothin' to lil' Red here now, ain'tcha, Missy?"

Jou just grunt in reply, attention focused on making hot chocolate for Shizuka.

"It's still isn't proper," insisted Mrs. Kawai.

"What ain't proper, what are ye' moonin' on 'bout?"

"Well, Katsuya's a boy; you can't expect a teenage boy and girl to share rooms!"

"I can just sleep on the floor, ma,"

"Nonsense! You still can't stay in the same room,"

"Whatcha talkin' bout, love? Missy here ain't a boy, plumbin' ain't right,"

"Still, it isn't-…WHAT!" she half choked, "Wha-wha-"

"Missy ain't a boy, lovey," said the shaggy blonde man calmly, "whatever gives ye that idea?"

Jou just sat there sipping his (?) hot chocolate calmly.

Shizuka stared at Jou with bugged eyes.

The bed was made up military style; a quarter would probably bounce a few times once dropped on top. Various pieces of post-it notes were stuck on virtually every available surface, covered in very small hand writing, she squinted at one which had the word Prudence C. written in bold and underlined a few times. Everything was colour coded, including the sock drawer and the small stack of comic books, and of course, the duel monster cards. There was one section of books and videos labelled with small black tags which caught her attention, there was no title on those videos and the books were wrapped in plain white paper…

"It's soft porn,"

"Huh?" Shizuka turned to her 'brother' with confusion, "What?"

"The one with black labels are porn," there wasn't even a hint of blush, "I saw you looking at them,"

"Oh, uh, oh!"

"You're welcome to borrow them anytime," she continued dead panned.

"Eh?"

"I lend them to Yugi, too, so it shouldn't be anything too polluting," there was a suspicious twitch to her mouth.

"Katsuya!"

"You know, I heard that red heads are supposed to blush a lot, but, are your ears suppose to be red too?"

"Grrr," unable to think of what to say, Shizuka launched herself on top of her new found sister, struggling to wrestle the blonde down.

With a small smile, the door to the sisters' room was quietly shut.

"See, love, no trouble'll come to Missy an' lil' Red," said Kyosuke to his anxious ex.

Mrs. Kawai wrinkled her nose, "You let Kats-suya read porn?"

"It's educational," he shrugged.

Her mouth turned downwards, "Why is it you never let me know she's a girl Kyosuke?"

"Ye never ask, love"

"Where did she come from anyway? You've never told me that either; and why is it that you quit your job at- at that company right after she dropped into our lives, huh?"

"Now, lovey-"

"Don't you 'lovey' me, Kyosuke. Why don't you give me some straight answers right now, because I'm sick and tired of all this lying, and all this damn surprises, do you hear me?"

"Yer shoutin' love, I think they kin' hear you all the way to the basement,"

"You- you- oh, forget it!" folding her arms together she turned to glare at the hapless wall, shoulders tensed from the suppressed anger.

"There now, it's gonna be alright-"

"No it isn't," she sniffed, "You've changed since she came, I just, I just want things to go back the way they used to be, before Katsuya…"

Unsure what to say, Kyosuke just drew her into his embraced, large hands stroking her back, soothing the tension off the poor woman. "Let's get ya to bed first, hm? Ya have plenty a time to think 'bout it all tomorrow,"

Gently, he led the distraught woman to the master bedroom, switching off the overhead lights on the way. So intent he was on comforting his ex wife, the man never notice the thin line of light that showed itself just as the room plunged into semi darkness. It was gone within seconds, and the sisters leaned against the door feeling out of breath at what they had just overheard.

Ahh… And so the plot thickens.

Thank you for all your lovely reviews, there isn't much SxJ here, but we might see something in the next part!

Hands cookies for everyone.


	4. Chapter 3

4Miracles

Whispers and buzzes and various noises associated with gossipmongers followed two students as they entered the school grounds. If they had hoped for dubious privacy of the school hall to at least quell down the buzzing, they were in for a disappointment. As it is the newest member of Domino high, and her close proximity to one of the schools' most eligible bachelor gave more than enough fodder for tongues to wag for days.

Shizuka gave a discreet cough behind her hand, "Is it always like this?"

"Like this what?"

"The girls…"

"Oh, them, I think so, why? Don't you like the uniforms they get you? I don't think you're allowed to change, but-"

"No, no, I mean, are they always this… hostile?"

"Nah, they're all pretty friendly, although there was this one time they almost rip the stuffing out of Honda once 'cause he ate their box lunches,"

"I think they're planning to rip my stuffing out," said Shizuka matter of factly.

"Why on earth would they do that?" 'he' grinned mischievously.

Shizuka just frowned back, "I'm warning you, related or not, I'm going to show your friends of that photo of yours wearing that-"

"Ok, ok, fine, fine, sheesh, talk about being stiff," muttered Jou, spying Yugi coming up to them, she waved brightly, "Oi, Yugi! Over here!"

When the smaller boy, along with ever present Anzu came within shouting distance, she said loudly, "Hi! You remember Shizuka? MY SISTER?"

The buzzing actually stopped for a second.

"Shizuka!" cried Anzu, "What on earth are you doing here?" before the red head had a chance to answer more shouts came her way.

"Shizuka!"

"Shizuka-chan!"

Honda and Otogi were falling all over each other to reach the girl first.

"Oh great," remarked Jou, "It's Dumb and Dumber,"

Her sister elbowed her in the ribs, "that's not every nice, dear BROTHER," she smiled innocently, at Jou's scowl. "Why can't I have my own fan club when you obviously do?"

"Mine are girls, SISTER," Jou said loudly, "When yours are girls too, I'll let you have a full permission to run with them,"

"Why BIG BROTHER," Shizuka did her best to contain a large grin, "You'd rather I'd be a lesbian?"

Satisfied at a choking Katsuya, she left to greet the new comers.

The annoying buzzing started up again.

From his vintage point, Kaiba Seto could see the crowd milling about the blonde and red points on the ground. So the mutt had brought along his little sister to school, that should make him happy. Not that he, Kaiba Seto cared anything about the mutt's happiness; it was only a casual observation of course. Quite like the ones he'd been conducting lately on the mutt. It's all just a simple observation hobby of course, why some idiots like to waste their time observing birds and snails when they could look at the mutt in his natural environment was beyond him.

Putting away the binoculars slash camera, he made a note in his laptop.

_Day xx_

_Mutt seems happy today, brought sister to school, no signs of the previous melancholy._

Hmm…

Scrolling down the machine, he went to 'pictures' and tried to choose a sneaked photo of the mutt being happy. There was one of him happily eating a triple deck double cheese burger, and one where he was crowing on about his 'great move' in Duel Monsters against Mutou, and another one depicting him after winning a track race against Apex High. There Kaiba paused to study the smirky grin the blonde had favoured on the losing team. The look was completed with the universal message presented by the blonde's middle finger and cocky pose.

Perfect.

Jounouchi Katsuya sighed as the unhappy growl of her stomach made itself known. How did the other girls do it? It was her fourth day of diet, and already it felt like months of starvation had caught up with her. Still the measuring tape showed the cruel reality of her need to diet, why oh, why can't her body stayed the same way it had for years now?

"Is something wrong, Jou?"

The gentle voice of Yugi tugged her out of her dark musings, "Huh? Uh, nope, nothing's wrong, hehe,"

Unconvinced, Yugi pressed on a little, "You know you can tell me anything, right? If you're in some kind of trouble…"

"No! No, really, no trouble," Growling noises emitted from her stomach, "Just, all this dieting is making me a little crabby that's all, no big, really."

Yugi frowned, "Are you sure it's alright to diet that much? Maybe you should eat something,"

"No! No, I'm, this diet is very important to me, I, um, really must stick to it,"

"If you say so," he trailed off, obviously still worried, "are you really ok? You were bleeding after Kaiba whacked you with that ball,"

"Nah, this is Jounouchi Katsuya you're talking about, a measly little football can't hurt the likes of me,"

"But…" The smaller boy frown, "Kaiba kicked that ball really hard,"

"Hah! He wish," Jou smirked cockily.

"You fainted after that,"

"Erm, must be the lack of food, I missed breakfast that day,"

"Jou…"

"Hey," Jou said jokingly, trying to cheer him up, "At least this way you can have all your pancakes to yourself,"

"Jou, I'd rather give up all the pancakes in the world just to see you happy again,"

Jou hesitated, what could you answer to that? Fortunately, while the blonde was still contemplating on what to say, they were interrupted by Anzu.

"Hey, the exam results are out, don't you guys want to go and see?"

"Sure, be right there!" called out Jou in relief, "Come on Yug, let's go see what crap result Honda gets this time,"

"I heard that,"

Jou smirked, "Ready to fork out that three hundred bucks, Sharky?" she taunted.

"Hah, no way you can get higher marks than me," Honda returned the smirk confidently, "For someone who's been barely scraping through for the past two years, there's no way you can win this one."

Jou just rolled her eyes, "So did you, dude, what makes you think you're any better?"

"Because, I have a secret weapon, hehehe," he rubbed his fingers together in a crazy docterish way. "There's no way you can win this one, Blondie," he winked conspicuously at Otogi.

"Say that again, and you'll be picking up your teeth on the ground, for days," she growled, mock threateningly, not missing the exchange.

"It is a well known fact that blondes are dumb," said Otogi deciding to join in, "the only thing they are well versed in are the arts of flirting and sports."

"Otogi, getting tired of the way you look? I can rearrange your face if you like,"

"Guys…please…" Yugi was getting worried over the general tension around them.

Anzu just rolled her eyes, "take those testosterones elsewhere, guys, come on Yugi, let's go see our results, come on, Shizuka, leave those three Neanderthals alone"

"Yes, um, ok," said Shizuka, not exactly sure what to feel seeing her 'sister' acting this way, and glad for the opportunity to leave and regroup her thoughts.

On the way to the billboard, more bickering is heard.

"I'm telling you, this time, I'm acing this bet,"

"You may have the ace, Honda my friend, but _I_ still hold the joker."

"That's impossible,"

"That, my dear friend, is three hundred bucks,"

"Someone must have screwed up the results, tell me, Jou, what did you do? Slept with the teachers?"

"Hah, say what you like, dice-boy, you and wonder boy here are official losers, live with it,"

"That isn't very nice, Jou," admonished Yugi, beside him, Anzu was too stunned to even nod in agreement.

"Jou, how did you- wha-"

"Oniichan had always been good with homework," offered Shizuka, at the looks of disbelief, she added, "well; he'd always helped me with my work when we were kids,"

"But that was years ago! You must have been what? Six? Eight? That's all kid's work, this is calculus, accounts, and- and- French? Since when did you take French?"

Jou just shrugged, "Last month, I needed the extra credit to continue in tracks, and one of the cheer girls offered to tutor me,"

"And calculus?"

"You know that girl in that Science Expo? The one with the braids and glasses?"

"Which one, they all looked like that," grumbled Honda.

"The one who won first prize in the Department of Creative Mathematical Appreciation,"

There was a small respectful silence of awe.

Gathering herself, Anzu asked, "What about Accountings?"

"Dad,"

"Commercial Law?"

"Dad, too,"

"Dad knows accounting?" asked Shizuka, trying to imagine her seven footer father crouched over a too small desk poking at a flimsy calculator.

"Oh, no, not pops, sis, there's this girl doing her MBA that lives next to us, her name is Soledad, we just call her Dad,"

From his corner of the billboard, Kaiba Seto note with satisfaction at his perfect scores, ah, to be perfect in everything. Next in line were 'the others' which did not even take up more than a second of his attention, they were fools who had tried and failed many times to over take him on the scoreboard. However, his eyes suddenly became reverted on the ninth placing; a certain Jounouchi Katsuya had ascended from placing xxxxxx to finish at ninth place?

Then a very annoying, very familiar voice floated to him, "Really, she was cool about it when I told her, I-"

Swiftly stepping in, Kaiba Seto set to interrupt the annoying blonde, "And how many people have you slept with to obtain these results?"

The mutt, more generally known as Jounouchi Katsuya rolled his beautiful brown eyes, "Please, not you too,"

Just then a small brown whirlwind flew in, nearly knocking into Kaiba before flinging itself into the arms of Jounouchi. The CEO's eye twitched at the blatant lack of respect but was unable to say anything as it began to speak very quickly.

"Katsu-chan! You did it! You really, really, did it!" shrieked the person delightedly; Kaiba winced at the impact to his ears.

It was a small thin girl, wearing their school uniform, but none of them could recall where they had seen her before. Her rich brown hair was cut in a short bob, and a pair of beautiful blue eyes shone out from behind the fluffy bangs. For some inexplicable reason, Kaiba Seto immediately hated her. But Jounouchi seems to know, and liked, her very well; the blonde returned the girl's hug happily unaware of the fuming blue eyes beside her.

"Kimmy! It's all thanks to you, babe," turning to the others, "Guys, this is Kimberly Patterson, the first prize winner of the Department of Creative Mathematical Appreciation,"

There was a stunned silence, impatiently; Jou tapped her foot, "Say 'how do you' do, guys"

"But I thought you wore braids, and glasses," blurted out Yugi.

"So I did, but I got tired of it,"

"You have the most beautiful eyes…" Honda literally drooled.

"Uh, thanks, I think," said Kimmy, doing her best to find something else to talk about, spying the red head beside them she cried, "Hey! You must be the little sister, Shizuka right?"

"Why, yes, how did you know?"

"Oh, Katsu-chan talks about you all the time, really, it gets boring at times, but now that I get to see you, I can understand why,"

The mutt never talks to him about his sister, thought Kaiba sourly, then again, they never really talk much, except to exchange insults and what nots. Still, that's some sort of a relationship, right? Unable to bear looking at the small girl clinging to the mutt, Kaiba glared at the billboard again, listening with half an ear to the chatterings. Presently, something the mutt said caught his attention.

"Aw, don't look so down, Honda, I won't be able to keep up this results anyway," said the blonde comfortingly to his friend, "Soledad is moving back to Brazil next week, so I'm stuck with no tutor for at least three subjects, ya can grill me for my crap results then,"

"Katsu-chan! That's no way to talk," said Kimmy, one finger pushing bridge of her nose, a habit retained from wearing glasses, "we must work, work, work in order to succeed,"

"Well…"

"Bess from econs could help, and I know my cousin studied law, although I think it's land law, or something, or was it criminal law? I'll ask her when I got back,"

"Sorry to break your bubble, Kim, but econs students don't necessary knows accounting, and law needs to be studied according to its specific subjects, at least, I need to," at her fallen face, Jou hesitated, but continued on doggedly, "'sides, I need someone who knows all three subjects, I jus' don't have the time to go from one tutor to another,"

"Oh, ok"

"Now who knows all three Company Law, Accountings and Business Management together?" wondered Shizuka aloud.

The rest assumes a 'thinking' pose, "Hmm…."

"It would have to be someone who knows the subject very well," added Katsuya, "Not just passing knowledge,"

"And someone who could teach," said Anzu feelingly, "I had this nutcase of a tutor once, total genius in math, but took two hours to tell me why two and two is four,"

From his spot, Kaiba did his best not to look at them, but snuck a glance from under his bangs anyway. Directly in front of him was his perfect result stating perfect scores for Mathematics, Electronics, History, Literature, Economics, and Statistics and finally the big three, Company Law, Accountings and Business Management. To him, the words seemed to flash out in big red letters next to his name Seto…

"Kaiba-kun!" shouted Yugi.

Automatically, as one, they all whipped around to stare at the CEO, who was standing next to his own results. It was like looking at a university ad, you know, like the ones with handsome students posing beside handsomer results with a large grin that says come study here and be like me. Only, the handsome student here was scowling at them.

Gulping Kimmy bravely step forward, "Um, please Mr. Kaiba, sir, can you please coach Katsu-chan these three subjects?"

Getting the idea, Shizuka stepped in with her own brand of puppy dog's eyes, "Please Mr. Kaiba?"

Jou just rolled her eyes, "Why are you two calling him Mister?"

Yugi clasped both hands before him, "Please, Mis-er, Kaiba-kun," causing more eye rolling on Jou's part, as well as Anzu's. Honda and Otogi were studying the scene with narrowed eyes, they weren't exactly sure how it would turned out, but was hedging for Kaiba to refuse, but daren't say so in front of the girls.

"Kaiba-kun,"

Blue eyes twitched

"Please, Mr. Kaiba,"

The band-aid covered hand twitched.

"Oh, great generous, sir…"

A permanent tic seemed to have resided on his face.

"Come on, Kaiba, just help out a friend here," even Anzu had joined the pleading crew.

The thin mouth, which had formed a firm grim line earlier, turned into a firm, grim downward curve.

Finally, Jou couldn't take it anymore, "Just leave off it, you guys, that Moneybags here probably bought his results anyway, no sense in getting help from someone who probably hasn't done a single worksheet in his life," she spat.

That finally freed Kaiba from his tics and twitches, "are you calling me a cheater mutt?"

"If the cape fits, wear it Kaiba-man," snorted Jounouchi, "An' don't fergit yer bloody underwear too!"

The twitches returned with full force, "Why you no good, half wit, half brain, half blooded, half bake sonofabitch!"

"Yeah? Is that all ya can come up wif? Stick em' up, rich boy!"

Beside them, the others groaned as the bitching begins.

"You know, I would have thought Katsu-chan would be more," Kimmy paused to search for the appropriate word, "Well, more mature than this,"

"Oh, he's plenty mature, alright" mumbled Shizuka, remembering the 'blue' movies they had spent the weekend watching.

"Stupid commoner dog!"

"Idiot half witch!"

"You half finished, defective product of god!"

"Violator of basic rights! Breacher of Contracts! Misrepresentator!"

"Oh yeah? Go face court, you lack of capacity mutt,"

"Um, is it me? Or do the insults sounds a bit funny this time?" observed Yugi.

"I think those are contract law terms," murmured Kimmy, "I know a few since Katsu-chan sometimes talks about them in his sleep,"

"Aah…"

"Abuser of creative accountings!"

"Defier of Prudence Concept!"

Prudence Concept? Oh so that's what Prudence C. is, thought Shizuka. "I know this one!" she cried, remembering what was written on the note, she bounced eagerly on her heels, "It's under concepts and basic laws of accountings,"

Sadly, neither of them seemed to have heard her.

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Infinity Times infinity ARE NOT!"

"Oh yeah? Infinity square infinity ARE TOO!"

"This is getting ridiculous," said Anzu, stepping up the bickering two, "Stop it right this instant-"

"YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!"

The combined yell almost threw her to the ground; it was loud enough to topple her balance and landed hard on poor Yugi, who was too heroic to get out of the way.

"Oww," moaned Yugi.

"Ugh," groaned Anzu.

Jounouchi was immediately apologetic, "Hey, Anz, Yug, are ye all right? I didn't mean ta, I mean, uh, forgive me?"

Kaiba just snorted, humph, and brushed imaginary dust off his shirt. Smirking like he'd won the argument.

Ticked off, Jounouchi immediately swing around, "Hey, Moneybags, it wouldn't hurt ya to apologize too, or are ye too high an' mighty fer that?"

"Why should I listen to pathetic mongrels like you?"

Jou immediately began to growl, Yugi, seeing the repeat of another bitch fight intervened immediately, "Kaiba stop baiting Jou, Jou, stop that growling, it really makes you sound like a dog, and Kaiba, you are to tutor Jou in those three subjects and Jou, I expect you to cooperate, are we clear?" he glared at them for good measure.

"Umm," Jounouchi who really didn't want to be under the CEO's thumb, but didn't want to hurt her friend's feelings either was trying to think her way out.

The CEO had no such qualms, "I have no intention of wasting my time with an idiot," he smirked superiorly at the mutt.

Seeing her way out, Jou just smirked back, "Well, seeing as how ya must hav' bribed the teachers to get those perfect scores, I don't see what help ya coulda given me anyway,"

"For the last time, I did not bribe the tutors, mutt, and for the record, I don't have to sleep with them either to get my marks up,"

Jou scowled, "For the last time," she echoed Kaiba's words, "I did not sleep with the tutors, get yer maggot infested brain outta the gutter, will ya?"

"Hah! How does a flea brain like you get beyond a mere passing is highly suspicious under any circumstances,"

"Maggot Brain,"

"Flea Bag,"

"Pathetic-"

"Stop it you two!" shouted Yugi, startling them both, "I can see that Kaiba is obviously the wrong choice as a tutor for you, Jou, so I'm sorry for pressing the matter,"

"See, even Yugi agreed that you're too dumb to pass, Maggot Brain," sneered Jou, "After all, what could one expect from a teacher briber like you?"

"That's not what I meant-"

"Oh, so you're now questioning my credibility, is that it?" Kaiba's temper is rising fast again.

"Oh yeah, I am so questioning yer bloody credibility, ya have a problem with that?" Jou widen her eyes in mocked fear, as Kaiba strode forward threateningly, "Oh I'm really scared now, Baby Blue Eyes…"

At that, Kaiba turned into a spectacular, albeit unattractive shade of vermillion.

The next thing they knew, all hell breaks loose.


	5. Chapter 4

5Someone else

Nursing a bruised jaw, Kaiba glared at his computer furiously, causing the majority of his staff to give thanks that his office is way up high in the tower, therefore not liable to get his snapping attention on their heads for incompetence, being a liability to the company and any other excuses their boss could think of.

Now, as the long time staffs of the Corporation should know, it is rare that the young master is not without a foul mood hanging about him like a personal thunder cloud. Where the striking of thunder and lightning could happen anytime, anywhere, and without warning. Today, the KS weather control systems had predicted hail and snowstorms, with copious amount of ice and sharp sarcasm were about to descend upon them, therefore all residence within vicinity of the Dark Cloud is advised to remain calm and be extra cautious at all times. Umbrellas would be virtually useless in this type of weather.

Some of the employees were already checking their insurance coverage and were busy phoning their closest relatives for a meaningful talk. Others were double checking their wills online.

Oblivious of the goings on in the lower level of the company's pecking order, Kaiba Seto continued to brood, I mean, gravely ponder upon the injustice of the world. After the mutt made that derogatory remark in association with Duel Monsters' most superior dragon monster… well, he couldn't remember the exact detail actually, a red haze seemed to have descended like a mist before his eyes, obscuring rational thoughts, all that he could recall was the swinging of fists and shouts, and finally, cold, wet water.

Apparently dumb and dumber had hit on the idea of separating them with the fire hose, thus creating an even bigger commotion, resulting in detentions, trips to the headmaster's office and finally, a choice, between expulsion or working with the mutt. The mutt had begged and pleaded unashamedly for being allowed to remain in school, even going as far as to admit being in the wrong and apologizing to Kaiba Seto.

That was when he realised how desperate the mutt must be, of course, being the sharp businessman that he is, Kaiba knew that in order to remain in control in the Domino society, he would have to control himself first. Failing that, he would have to do the next best thing. Control or eliminate the element creating the whole confusion within himself, in other words, control or eliminate that damned mutt.

Maniacal laughter floated down the building of Kaiba Corporation tower, sending shivers up everyone's back.

"Atchoo!"

"Bless you," said Shizuka, absently stirring a pot.

Seated in a miserable heap in a corner of the kitchen was Jounouchi Katsuya, nursing a very bad cold, which had resulted in sniffles and sneezes and a cherry red nose. They were now living alone after their parents had took off, leaving a note informing them not to worry and that they were now visiting a sick relative, in another country. To which Jou muttered a 'bullshit', and threw the scrap of paper into the bin, and went off to shower.

That's when the cold sets in, uncontrollable sneezes caught Jou unawares. Until Shizuka threatened to tie her up in bed unless she sits still and take her medicine like a good girl. More emphasize on the 'girl' part. Unwilling to leave her precious kitchen even to Shizuka, Jou had insisted on being inside while she cooked. Finally, after the sneezing the fifth time over her sister's shoulder, Jou was sent to sit in the corner, away from the food. As much as Shizuka loved her sister/brother, she had no intention of getting sick as well.

"Soup's almost ready, Katsuya,"

An irritated grunt was her only reply.

"We only have to wait for it to boil a bit, then it's time to eat," she went on cheerfully.

Another grunt.

"In the mean time, why don't you tell me more about yourself, like what your real name is, for instance," she continued on equally casually.

Silence met her efforts.

Shizuka sighed, setting her spoon down and crouched to huddle level, "Come on, we're practically sisters, you can tell me,"

"Why do you want to know anyway?" Jou hedged.

Sensing weakness, Shizuka gave her best smile, "Don't you want me to call you by your real name?"

"It's…"

"Yes?"

"Um, I don't really think…"

Doe eyes came into view, "I can't call you Katsuya all the time, it'll be like calling Anzu, Andrew, or," she grinned, mischievously, "Calling Kaiba Seto, Stacy,"

Jou's lips twitched, Shizuka gave in first, giggling a little behind her hand. Soon full blown laughter rang in around the empty rooms, bouncing back and forth against the bare walls. In an effort to save on electricity, the sisters only switched on the kitchen lights.

"So, what did they used to call you?"

"Shizuka…" sighed Jou, "you're not going to give up are you?"

"Nope,"

"You're going to pester me and not feed me until I tell you, right?"

"Actually, I never thought about withholding food, but now that you mentioned it, yup,"

Jou muttered something that sounded like me and my big mouth, and looked away.

"Nee-sama?"

"What's that suppose to mean?" glared Jou.

"It's Japanese for Honourable Big Sister, Mokuba calls his brother Nii-sama sometimes, and I just thought it'd be appropriate,"

"Mokuba calls his brother Honourable Big Sister?"

"No, no, Nii-sama is brother; Nee-sama is for sisters,"

"Sounds pretty alike to me," grunted Jou, "Alright, you win, I'll tell you what they used to call me before I was Katsuya,"

"Really?"

"Yes, really,"

"Well?"

"It's…"

"Come on," she scooted closer, "Tell,"

Jou took a deep breath, "It's Katsu-chan,"

It was strangely quiet at Domino High the next day, people tread carefully around a fuming red head, a disgruntle blonde with a conspicuous red mark on his?her? face and a suspiciously happy looking brunet with bright blue eyes almost sparkling with glee. Really, it was as creepy as thinking about what kind of underwear your parents wear.

Completely, totally, wrong.

This was the general impression that Yugi get when Kaiba had actually smiled at him, _smiled_. Is the world coming to an end?

However, the general population of Domino High did not become unsettle enough to ponder over the mystery and enigma of Kaiba Seto's smile, having not the luxury to see it in the first place. Instead they are much in favour of a very much juicier piece of scandal to chew over that fateful morning. The said scandal being a weekly sports newsletter where Jounouchi Katsuya frequently starred as the most eligible sportsman of their time, with a small 'strike out' column on the side featuring girls he'd turned down that week.

Last week was, as we knew it was the unfortunate young Miss Kimiko Nakamura, there was also an accompanying photo of her in tears. But, that was last week's news, what the girls and some of the boys are more interested now is the newest issue.

Had someone finally snagged the golden blonde's eye? If so, who was it?

It was the big question that festered in the hearts of most girls, and the wallets of some guys. Then there's the consolation prize game of guessing the next reject, of which poor Kimiko was the latest of victim.

"JOU!"

The owner of the name winced against the impact.

Honda, being the bookkeeper of the mounting bets studied these newsletters judiciously every week to obtain the information needed for the Big Bet. He was waving one now at Jounouchi and Shizuka.

"Why didn't you tell me, you sly fox, you!" Honda had grabbed the blonde in a headlock and was messing up the golden locks with the newsletter.

"Wha- oof! What the hell are ya doing?" When the brunet did not cease messing up her hair, she tried again, "Honda!"

"It's so classic! Why didn't I see it before, the star jock, and the sexy cheerleader, a match made in high school heaven!"

Having freed herself successfully, Jou grabbed him by the shoulders, "Listen, pal, I don't know what the hell yer talkin' about, and I have a feeling I won't like it, but spill,"

"Wha-, you spill, Jou, you're the one who promises to tell me who it was-"

"I never-"

"Think of all the money we could have made-"

"You mean, YOU'd have made," muttered Jou, beginning to get the gist of what's happening. "So where did ya get the 'inside information' from this time?"

"What inside info, it's all over the paper,"

"WHAT?"

"Here," he tossed the much abused newsletter at the blonde.

JOUNOUCHI KATSUYA

IT'S OVER FOR YOU GIRLS!

The headlines practically screamed at Jou, accompanying the headline was a photo of the blonde in shorts and tank top, and was caught in a rather compromising position with another blonde. A long hair busty blonde wearing the entire cheerleader's paraphernalia, mini skirts, leggings and a hot pink blouse. A stray pom-pom was also caught in the still photo.

Shizuka peered over her sister's shoulder, "Wow, Katsu-chan, who's the hot girl with you?" her voice was sarcastic, letting her sister know that she's still mad at her.

Jou was speechless for once.

Happy to answer for him, Honda said, "Cheerleader Annette Michaels, the one voted as Miss Beautiful Legs at last year's beauty contest." A drool began to appear, "just imagine those slim, sexy legs wrapped around your waist…"

Shizuka grimaced, "I'd rather not, thank you," spying her still shocked sister, she stood on tip toe and playfully hissed into her ear, "I'd never figure you for a les, sis,"

That startled Jou to turn and glared at her sister, who grinned wickedly at the blonde. Having done that, she went back to wince at the glossy photo of the two blondes. This satisfied Shizuka a little, at least _some_ things could still make her worldly sister uncomfortable. Consider it payback for the blue movies Katsu-whatever had shocked her with the other day.

"Katz, darling!"

A shrill voice pierced into their conversation, a busty blonde in a short blue skirt was waving a blue and white pom-pom at them. It was the blonde in the photo. About this time, Seto Kaiba had lost his smile and was discreetly crushing one of the many newsletters under his heels.

"Netty…"

"_Mon Dieu_!" cried the girl, and let loose a stream of undecipherable words, punctuated by much hand waving and excited _ne'est-che paz_, and _oui_, which clued them in on the language she was using. If this was not shocking enough, Jou was talking back, equally loudly, and using the same language.

"Let me guess," said Anzu who had arrived at the scene with Yugi, Kaiba was somewhere behind them, still pretending that all this had nothing to do with him, "This is his mysterious French tutor, the cheer girl"

"Soon to be ex-tutor, hopefully," muttered Kaiba under his breath, although his French is sketchy at best, it could still be improved enough to offer as a teaching course to the mutt. Not that he had any interest in improving the mutt, of course; it's the matter of principle.

"_Ridicule!"_ snapped the girl, "Of, course it is not your fault, _cherie_, this is all the work of those detestable, stalkers, _oui_?"

Perhaps he is counting his chickens too soon.

The two blondes were still arguing in French when a horde of girls, followed by camera welding reporters stampede in, and for the first time in his life, Kaiba felt what it was like to be trampled on by fan girls. When the dust clears, he found that far from being the only casualty, there are a number of other boys faced down on the floor, all covered in foot prints. As he prepared himself to sneer at them for being such a pathetic lot, before he could do so though, he caught the sight of himself against a conveniently placed window.

There was a black shoe print planted horizontally across his face.

Sleep came uneasily to Kaiba that night.

When he woke up, he found himself in one of the many schoolrooms of Domino High, one of the higher placed ones that he preferred. Kaiba was intrigue, not many of his dreams took place at school, and those that do annoyingly centred on being defeated by pharaoh Yugi, not something he would like to be reminded of.

Seeing that he didn't have his duel disc with him, Kaiba concluded that this dream had nothing to do with that creepy short stuff. A cool breeze blew in, ruffling his hair, without turning to look, he knew that one of the windows were wide open. The one overlooking the sports field, where Jounouchi is usually found dashing around like a demented gerbil going round and round with seemingly boundless energy.

Sure enough, as he neared the window, the reed thin figure of the blonde could be seen running as usual, unusually, however, was the lack of people cheering him on. There was no cheer girls in mini skirts, no cheer friends with weird hair do, and no friendship promoting cheer girl shouting for him to stop before bursting a lung or something. Just the blonde, and the tracks.

From this distance, it is difficult to tell what expression the blonde is currently wearing, Kaiba had never had the chance to watch the blonde close up when he was racing, well there were those times when the blonde made it like the wind as soon as the lunch bell rings. But then a lot of the mutt's friends had the privilege to see him rushing towards food, surely it had to be different when it comes to the tracks?

"_Se rendre ridicule,"_ said a voice.

Blinking in surprise, Kaiba nevertheless managed a haughty glare in return at, a blonde girl?

"_Se rendre ridicule,"_ she repeated again, pointing at his chest, "_tu_,"

Kaiba growled, how dare a blonde girl threaten him like that? Quite suddenly, he had developed a heavy dislike for blonde females, resulting the sacking of one of the corporation's receptionists. Another one suffered similar fate, although it was mostly due to her rather impressive rack rather than her hair, which was brown in colour.

Unmoved, the girl went on glaring at him, it was then he noticed that despite her height, the girl couldn't be more than twelve years old, if her uniform is anything to go by. It was the same colour as Mokuba's uniform, only instead of trousers and a button up shirt, the girl sported a short sailor suit that was made compulsory among female students of Domino Primary School.

Unless…

This was some new perverse way of attracting his attention? On the other hand, why would he dream up all these things? Does dreaming about girls in uniform make him a pervert? Images of a certain short hair blonde in tiny skirts and a revealing top bounced cheerfully in front of him. The skirt sat awkwardly on a nonexistent hip, lending tantalizing glimpses of skin and…

Fingers snapped in front of his face, the girl was trying to get his attention. She was clearly not happy about losing it in the first place.

"_Focus_!" she said impatiently.

Kaiba focused his glare at her.

"_Good_," she commented, and proceeded to walk through the wall.

Kaiba debated panicking, before discarding the idea as ineffectual, and followed the girl. He banged his nose rather painfully against the wall. The disembodied head of the girl came back along with her left hand, which she uses to snap her fingers at his face again.

"_Focus,"_

Kaiba folded his arms and glared at her. The girl scowled back, they glared at each other for several seconds. Suddenly, the girl reached out, grabbed hold of his arm and pulled hard. For the second time in five minutes, Kaiba banged his nose painfully against the wall. This time, the impact was forceful enough that he blacked out immediately.

Nothing else was discussed in school that day.

Or the next, or for the several next days as well.

The reporters wanted to know the when and how, now that they knew the who and what. Both blondes proved to be unusually obliging, smiling agreeably at cameras and answering questions thrown at them.

"Oui, ve are lovers," she batted her eyelashes, clinging to a smiling Jou's arm, "And ve are very happy to announce it, no?" She playfully squeezes Jou's arm.

"Of course, Netty," he cooed back, making several girls nearby fainted from envy.

'Netty' giggled delightedly.

There was a slightly forced quality to the smile, thought Kaiba as he grudgingly tore his eyes away from his fascinating economics book, though it is invisible to most, best friend the Shorty included, only an avid observer like him could have noticed that slightly too high tilt on the left corner that smiling mouth.

Surely even a proletariat like the blonde could see that the Yellow Vine with fake breasts, and equally fake French accent was way below his standards? Unless, of course, there was the reason of (here he choked slightly) LOVE, and the ONE that half the school had been talking about. Not that he was listening of course.

Ugh, they were now making doe eyes at each other, the air fairly crackled with electricity and, he gagged, LOVE, mud brown against chocolate brown. Isn't opposite suppose to attract? Why is the mutt going against the natural laws of attraction and panting for another blonde? He was suppose to be attracted to someone cool, logical, intelligent, not breathy and hot blooded; rich as opposed to his poorness, and have sharp sense of humour, and, and with not blonde hair and not brown eyes.

Brown eyes, hmm, that seemed to remind him of something. Something very, very important, but what?

Brown eyes…

Blonde mutt.

Brown eyes…

Blonde mutt's friend, shark head.

Brown eyes… Girl…

Mystery Girl with brown eyes in photo!

Could it be?

Kaiba Seto slide out his cell phone and pressed the fast dial number.

Immediately a female voice answered in a monotone, "Welcome to the KCI unit, how may we help you?"

"I want the details of this girl investigated; name Annette Michaels, a Domino High cheer girl, with fake a French accent and fake bre…"

As he was firing the particulars at the company's investigation centre, loud chantings of "Kiss. Kiss. Kiss." could be heard floating toward where he was seated.

Silently gagging, Kaiba rubbed his temple tiredly, "And make it fast. Please."

"So, you two are now a couple," solemn blue eyes gaze steadily at the blonde couple, causing the 'guy' partner to squirm a bit.

"Kimmy…"

"Kim, dahling," breathed Annette, "how good of you to come congratulate us, we are so happy our best friends are so good to us, no?"

"Uh, right, that's… really nice of you, babe,"

"Ten bucks a bitch fight is about to take place," someone whispered.

"You're on,"

Money exchanged hands.

"I can't look," said Yugi covering his eyes, "tell me when it's over," but he peeked through his fingers anyway.

Anzu just rolled her eyes, "Really, this is too much,"

Shizuka sat herself next to a visibly agitated Kaiba, who was not happy at the invasion of the Yugioh gang at his table. They seemed to have come to the conclusion that Kaiba is 'one of them' and therefore should be included in the Jounouchi watch/speculation. As it is, they couldn't sit at their usual table anyway since it was packed with girls, friends of Annette and majority of the usual cheerleader's group.

It was an eye batting, lips pouting, breast heaving fest, with Jou at the centre. A very nervous looking Jou that is, Honda immediately began a bet on how long the lovers are going to last. Though annoyed, Anzu nevertheless wrote her name down for 'one month', Yugi betted two months, Shizuka one week. Kaiba went on pretending to ignore them, but secretly betted one week as well…

Jounouchi Katsuya sighed, if she had to grin toothily at another camera...

"Netty, please, must we do this?" she said, sorting through the mail that had poured through her locker. It was late evening, having to finish some last minute practices on the track while Annette had cheered her on.

"Don't be silly; of course we have to, what do you think my parents, my friends would say if they found out what we're really doing?" She had changed earlier, and was now wearing a sweater and shorts instead of the full cheer regalia.

"Be very surprise?" said Katsuya dryly.

"Hmph! We have our bargain, Katz, are you backing out?"

"You know I wouldn't do that, it's just…"

"It's that Kimmy girl, yes?" she looked fiercely at him, "You like her brains better, you think I'm just a stupid cheerleader, no?"

"Would it make you feel better if I said yes?"

"You-" she was sputtering with rage, brown eyes snapping. "You-"

"The answer is no, I don't think you're stupid, and no, this isn't about Kimmy," at least, she thought sadly, not entirely.

It calmed the other blonde enough, "Then why not? Ve could make this work, you and I… we match well, do you not think so?"

"That's not part of the bargain…"

"Ve could make it, please, _Cherie?_ Love me?" She was hanging on the lapels of 'his' jacket now.

There don't seem to be another choice, therefore Jou decided to use her trump card.

"I'm sorry, Netty, I like you a lot, and really I do, very much,"

Annette the cheerleader swallowed nervously, her nails unconsciously digging into the thick material of Katsuya's jacket. Steeling herself, she asked the next crucial question quietly.

"But?"

"But," a slight pause, "I'm in love with someone else."


	6. Chapter 6

6complications

Shizuka won the bet hands down.

Exactly one week later, the couple quietly announced their separation, reason?

"Vell, ve find that ve are too alike, strangers thinks ve are like sister and brother, like, like twins, _ve_ feel like a twin too, no? _Cherie_?"

"Ahem, yes, we're back to being best friends now, it's just not working,"

Both of them smiled winningly at the cameras.

Thus in exactly one week, the 'dream couple' announced their separation, much to the delight of the gossipmongers and various fan clubs. In fact, with the mounting possibility of bets and slightly larger hopes for being the One, no one step forward to question the break up too seriously.

Shizuka graciously treats the gang to a 'first time win' dinner to celebrate her winnings, after all, she is now several thousand yen richer. The ones invited were Yugi, Anzu, Ryou and Honda, naturally, her beloved brother and a new found friend, Kimmy, who turns out to be the same age as she is, despite her genius in Mathematics, and therefore sharing the same classes.

Life resumes its normal course, except for Jou stopping her French lessons with Annette, nothing much had changed since before the fateful newsletter. At the school cafeteria, the Yugioh gang, having lost their usual table to the cheerleaders, continued to sit at Kaiba Seto's table. The young CEO would have protested at this encroachment of privacy, but, then again, being the recipient of various sideways looks and glares, he realized that most of them were paying attention to him again instead of that mutt, or worse that poor excuse of a cool guy in leathers, who also happened to be less than four feet tall.

It was good to be notice.

Especially when it was done by the mutt. It was disgustingly gratifying when the blonde narrowed his eyes at Kaiba after noticing his math girlfriend and beloved sister flanking the left and right of the great Seto Kaiba. Hah, take that proletariat.

Keeping eye contact, Kaiba dug another spoonful of the pink and white 'love lunch' courtesy of Shizuka Kawai, stuffed the concoction into his mouth and chewed deliberately in front of the mutt. The said mutt scowled, curled his lip, pushed the remainder of his food away and proceeded to plonk a thick book between them to block further eye contact.

Unwilling to encourage the animosity between the two, none of the others made any attempts to force Jou to put down the book. Considering that they bickered on every little thing almost all the time, the fact that Jounouchi had not answered Kaiba's blatant challenge was a miracle in itself. And not something they are prepared to question. Not just yet anyway.

Meanwhile, Anzu worriedly contemplates the mystery of Jou's vanished appetite.

"Jou,"

"Hm?"

"What did you have for breakfast this morning?"

"Leftovers," grunted the blonde.

Honda snorted, "Yeah, right, like there's such thing in your house,"

For a moment, Anzu thought she saw Jou's shoulders tensed, the next second though, the blonde was whacking Honda on the head with his very thick and heavy book. So, she couldn't be sure. But then, why would Jou want to hide something like that? Curiously, she turned her attention to Shizuka, who was gazing at Kaiba Seto with something akin to adoration. Uh, oh, definitely not something Jou is going to be happy about.

Though unwilling to let Jou escape with the change of subject, she resumes her interrogation with the other sibling. Hoping to gain some insight into this mystery, Jou not eating is like, like the pope not praying, or Anzu playing truant.

"So, did you have to heat up the leftovers, or just ate out of the fridge?"

"Huh? Um, yes, Anzu?" surprised brown eyes turned to her, obviously dazzled by the billionaire.

She patiently repeated the question.

"Oh, we had some soup with rice, I think, and fried eggs with sardines and lots of lime jell-o with peanut butter and toast," said the red head cheerfully.

Anzu felt herself turning green at the combination. She also noticed that Kaiba was staring at his lunch box with its pink and white contents with a rather stiff expression. True to his oh-so-cool character however, the young man calmly replaced the spoon back to the box, and discreetly pushed it to one side. Thereby maintaining his dignity as well as the circumstances permitted.

Jou snorted inelegantly behind his book.

Generally speaking, Anzu was not a cruel and heartless person by nature. In fact, she could be quite sensitive when the occasion demands it. It's just so happens that Kaiba's behaviour had rubbed her the wrong way that day, ignoring Jou in favour of his sister, practically flirting with the girl in front of her brother. Especially, when everyone knows how protective he is about his little sister.

"So, Kaiba," she said sweetly, deliberately catching Jou's eye, "And how was your lunch today?"

Fortunately the young billionaire was saved from answering by a looming shadow. It was their headmistress, Mrs. Kelly, who happens to have a very liberal way of running her schools. What with allowing students special day offs just for Battle City and turning a blind eye against zombies, and hooded people running wild in the premises of Domino High. A rather bullish lady in her fifties, she favours flat sole shoes, floaty scarves, and very snazzy glasses.

"Mr. Kaiba," she said gravely.

Kaiba nodded at her. The others watched the exchanged with unfeigned interest, except for Jounouchi, who was staring fixedly at her book.

"If you would pay attention, Mr. Jounouchi, this concerns you too,"

Jou looked up reluctantly. Nothing good is going to come out of this, she could feel it in her bones. Or that could have been the chill up her spine at Kaiba Seto's little smirk at her direction.

"Will you cease making that infernal noise!" Kaiba finally snapped at the constant tap tap tapping of Jounouchi's pen against table.

The tapping stopped.

An ominous silence replaced the tapping. Kaiba refused to be intimidated by the silence. He is the reigning King of Uncomfortable Silence. Not even Yami could defeat him, even Mokuba's patented puppy dog's eyes could not withstand against the Silence. At least not very often.

The silence stretched on.

Sweat gathered at the back of Kaiba's neck.

In hindsight did Kaiba wonder perhaps that he had miscalculated just a tad this time. Briefly, he recalled the conversation at the table earlier with the Head Mistress.

"_Now, it has come to my attention that some of you," she glared over her glasses at Yugi especially, "Some of you are having trouble making the proper grade in classes,"_

"_Um, yes ma'am?" Yugi thought guiltily of his less than average scores._

"_Now I am also gratified to note that there are also those of you who took the initiation to work hard for your subjects through various tutors…"_

_Honda grinned proudly at this, even Jou looked tentatively pleased. _

"_Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that in order to take advantage of this remarkable progress, some changes will have to be made," a slight pause "the school will now assign a tutor-apprentice project to further enhance the quality of our school's education"_

_At this point, Kaiba was concentrating his attention on his perfectly manicured nails._

"_Congratulations Mr. Kaiba, Mr. Jounouchi, you are the first pair to be teamed up in this project,"_

The stunned silence was a thicker than porridge after that. Jou had screamed and yelled and threatened to quit the team, but had cowered before the glare of the headmistress.

Glancing at the sullen blonde in front of him, Kaiba almost wish for the infernal tapping to begin again. As a final resort to restore some less hostile atmosphere, Kaiba slammed both hands onto the table, causing the blonde to jump and glare accusingly at him.

"We're taking a break,"

It felt like wolves were tearing up her insides.

Hunger had never felt so profound, not even that time when… well, she didn't remember a time when she felt so starved. This was beyond mere hunger. This was hell.

It was even worse than the time when Mrs. Kelly announced that stupid partnership thing, hah, like she needed moneybags to help her, the stupid Maggot Brain had probably never even read a single paper on his courses, using under the table means to get his stupid, perfect results. Jounouchi could easily get perfect marks too, only, she needed help in remembering certain things, come to think of it, why was she angry at the brunet again?

It had only been two days since the partnership announcement, between track meets and business meetings, they both managed to scrape together a grand total of two hours study time for each day, barely enough to get over the obligatory glaring and snarling before getting down to the real thing. Even then, Jou's attention was shot to hell because of the tearing hunger; she was seriously anorexic, and not admitting it.

When Kaiba announced a break, she was tired enough to feel grateful, that is, until the CEO rang a silver dinner bell, and in trot the butler arms laden with the last thing she wanted to see.

"BURN IN HELL!!"

Was Jounouchi's first reaction at the butler's grand entrance. It was soon followed by much throwing of things at Kaiba and his servant, that and a lot of screaming.

Kaiba made to gain control of the situation, "Mutt! Stop this at once!"

When a very sharp penknife lodged itself near his ear, he tried a different tactic, "I'm sure, there's some way we can resolve this…"

"DIE BASTARD!!"

An unidentified projectile was hurtling directly at his face, unable to duck; Kaiba deftly caught the object with his hand. Not bothering to spare a glance at the thing he caught, Kaiba tried again, "Look, Jounouchi…"

SMACK!!

Something soft and, sour (?) landed into his face, obscuring his view for a moment. When the thing slide down with a soft plop, Kaiba saw that it was the mutt's purple track shorts; a pair of Soiled and Used purple track shorts, a menacing glint appeared in those killer blue eyes.

"DIE MUTT!!"

Mokuba came home to a wrecked dining room, where the study sessions were supposed to be held. The two teenagers were still yelling obscenities at each other and were using table legs as swords. The butler was long since gone, no doubt busy drafting out his resignation letter, thought Mokuba. Briefly, he debated stopping the foray, and then decided against it. No one ever had the cause to accuse the younger Kaiba of being stupid, and he was certainly not going to indulge them now.

Nevertheless, someone could get hurt.

Both teenagers had substituted the table legs in favour of chairs.

Mokuba sighed, and closed the door behind him. He will see to it that they have plenty of ice packs ready. A loud crash and more yelling occurred. And, he would call Maintenance to send in their carpenters and cleaners tomorrow. Shaking his head in resignation, he mounted the massive stairs to his room, doing his best to ignore the noises from the dining room. (Eww, that sounded so obscene) At least they weren't 'studying' in the kitchen, who knows what damage they would have done with all those knives and fire and other sharp and dangerous objects.

More crashing sounds.

And he was supposed to be the youngest of their member.

Breathing hard, Kaiba tried to maintain his slippery hold on the chair leg used in the Battle of the Pages. His opponent, the Exceptionally Air-headed Mutt was leaning against the wall, face a sickly pale from the fight, but Kaiba is nobody's fool, the hard gleam in those chocolate brown eyes betrayed a strength of will that still burns behind the pallid expression. He tightened his grip on the piece of wood.

Then, quite suddenly, the blonde doubled over, and groaned holding his stomach. Kaiba was immediately suspicious, for about five seconds. Despite what everyone said, Kaiba Seto is no cold hearted bastard, especially not when someone is bleeding all over his dining room floor. Being a mature, logical minded person, he did not shriek nor did he faint at the sight of the blood. However, he did turn a shade paler than usual. Ever cautious, he decided to play it safe and poke at the mutt from a safe distance with the table leg.

"Mutt,"

Poke.

"Mutt, are you done playing dead?"

The said mutt opened one bleary eye, and growled, "Eat foolscap and die, Moneybags,"

Kaiba breathed an inward sigh of relief, if the mutt feels up to insults, that should meant that he's normal in the head. Still, it does nothing to explain the blood seeping through his clothes, though Kaiba was reasonably sure that he didn't hit the mutt that hard to make him bleed. Although, there _are_ times when people accuse him of not knowing his own strength. Therefore, anything's possible.

Convinced that the mutt was in no condition to attack him, Kaiba approached him warily; injured animals were notoriously dangerous after all. Jounouchi supported this hypothesis by growling at him. Deciding that surprise would be his best defence, he quickly scooped up the protesting mutt into his arms and after, making sure that Mokuba was not there to witness, made it quickly to his personal laboratory.

"What the hell are you going to do to me?" shrieked Jounouchi, doing her best to dislodge herself from her captor's arms.

Kaiba merely grunt in reply as he made his way steadily down the stairs, what on earth made him use basement as laboratory was anyone's guess. He was certainly regretting it now as he made his way down the narrow staircase with a floundering mutt in tow. It had seemed like a good idea at that time. Finally, after much struggling on both parts, they made it to his desired destination. Kaiba unfeelingly dumped the blonde onto the metal surface and switched on the overhead lights.

"Now hold still," a pair of very sharp scissors gleamed in the sterile light.

"Nn-" protested Jou.

Not waiting for consent, he proceeded to shred the blonde's clothes, counting on the other to keep still in fear of being 'accidentally' stabbed. Quickly assessing the situation, Kaiba pin pointed the injured zone as somewhere near the upper part of the blonde's leg, and being a true sadist, he proceeded to slice up the entire pants off the mutt.

It was an act he would regret later on.

A sickly sweet smell struck him as soon as more blood was in sight. What lay before him forced even the great Kaiba Seto to stumble a few steps back.

"Oh God,"

Buried under copious amount of blanket, Jounouchi lay huddled in a foetal position, damn, her stomach _hurt._ The room was a hazy recollection of sounds and movements; she could barely focus on anything…

"Here,"

Some very unkind individual tugged relentlessly at the blanket she had covered her head with, letting in the cold.

"Go 'way,"

"Only after you've swallowed these," said the low but firm voice.

Cracking an eye open, she glared at the tiny white pills in a large unknown hand.

"Come on, mutt, I'm not going to poison you,"

She glared at the speaker, "Take those away, I don't need them,"

"They're for period pains, for goodness sake, just swallow," he had not gone through the trouble of forcing them out of the kitchen maid just to have them refused by the mutt.

"No,"

"I said-"

"GO TO HELL!!"

"… fine!" Kaiba slammed the pills and the water onto the bedside table, "Go ahead and die, see if I care!"

He made to stomp off, but something snagged at his coat, reminiscing the first time he'd been caught by a rose bush and was the unwitting witness of a love confession. He turned to glare and blinked in surprise when he noticed the mutt's fingers clutching at the white material, dirtying it by the way.

"What now?" he was impatient to leave, nothing the mutt say will make him stay now.

"Please…"

"Please what? I can't hear you," said Kaiba nastily, hah, now the mutt wants his attention, well, he will just deny whatever he, no _she_ wants and do so with much sneering and horrible sarcasm. He paused eagerly to hear her pleading.

"Please… j-just-"

"Just what?" why can't she finish this quickly?

"…kill me…"

Kaiba paused. Ok, he could still go with the original plan and ignore her plea, he wondered if he should practice his villainous laugh while denying her death.

"…hurts so much…"

Just what on earth had he gotten himself into?


	7. Chapter 7

7Tough Love

"So how is…she?"

If the doctor had noticed the slight pause, there was no outward indication of it, "Well, I'll say she had a pretty close call, the poor girl suffered from some painful menstruation problems, fairly normal-"

"How could you say that?" snapped Kaiba, "She's like a bloody vegetable bleeding all over the bed, normally she's a blasted tomboy, running around the field kicking other boys' asses when it comes to sports and fights, now, well, just look at her!"

"I'm afraid the combination of a stomach ulcer and bad eating habits is deteriorating her health, is she anorexic do you think?"

Kaiba hesitated, he remembered the blonde's first reaction when the butler brought in their food, and she had gone totally ballistics, screaming and fighting, not typical Jou behaviour of jumping at the first chance of free food. "I believe she may have been undergoing some excessive dieting," admitted Kaiba.

"Well, she can't withhold food anymore; it would just further aggravate that stomach ulcer of hers, give her milk and liquid foods when she wakes up later. I believe that's the cause of her health problems, the menstruation, and that fight," he looked pointedly at Kaiba, "may have been the last straw,"

Kaiba frowned at the tone, but said nothing, Dr. Sanders may be rude, but he could be counted on for silence and discretion.

"Is there anything else I should know?"

"Just make sure she eats, I don't care what you do, shove the food down her throat if you don't want her to starve to death," the doctor looked meaningfully at Kaiba's skinny frame, "and that goes for you too, the both of you are too thin for your own good."

Kaiba debated firing the man on the spot, then remembering that the man was never his employee in the first place. Life sucks sometimes. The doctor left Kaiba, after declaring that he would see himself out, leaving the young businessman with his newest responsibility.

The said mutt was now huddled in his bed, great, where the hell was he supposed to sleep now? There was no one to make up another bed in the entire mansion. Mokuba had let staff a rest of the day off. To 'recuperate and prepare' for tomorrow's cleaning up it seems. Which did nothing to solve his immediate problem of rest, after further debate with himself, Kaiba came to a decision.

The bloody bed was six feet wide and ten feet long, there's plenty of room to get lost in there. Four people could fit in comfortably in that bed. Thus satisfied with his logic Kaiba made to undress, then change his mind. No sense courting trouble, he will sleep with his pyjamas on, who knows, it might just convince the blonde not to castrate him at first sight.

Six a.m. in the morning.

Some horrible person was banging noisily at the door, a very unhappy Mokuba yawned as he went down to see who it was. Blearily, without a thought for his safety, he yanked the door open, stopping the banging mid noise. A screech made him slammed the door back. However, whoever the person was behind the door soon pushed it open again. Very red in face, and breathing hard was Shizuka Kawai, who grew even redder in face at Mokuba.

Oh right, he was in his boxers only.

Not in a mood to be charitable he glared at the red head, "What, never seen a guy in underwear before?"

"Actually, no," snapped Shizuka, "Now where is Katsuya?"

"Katsuya? Oh you mean Jou, he's gone back hasn't he? Nii-sama was quiet last night, so that means no Jou," he scowled at her, "believe me I'd know if he's still here, the amount of noise they made together is horrifying,"

That seems to alarm Shizuka even more, "My s-brother didn't came home last night, I just want to know if he's alright,"

The miserable look on her face was enough to jolt some sympathy within Mokuba, after all he had a brother to take care too. "Alright, we'll ask my brother if he'd sent Jou home last night, it's the least he could do after bashing each other with that stupid chair leg-"

"Katsuya was in a fight?" the red head was gathering steam now, "That's it, your brother is talking to me right now!"

"Wait, you can't, he might be in the showers, or, or the lavatory, yeah,"

"I don't care if he's shitting his ass off, I want some information, and I want it now!" with that, she stormed past a shocked Mokuba, who stare in wonder at her very colourful language.

Big brother is so in trouble.

"Katsuya!" she shouted, "Katsuya where are you!?" she was throwing doors open at random now. "Kaiba Seto you bastard, face me like the coward you are!"

Oh yes, Seto is so in trouble.

She threw open another door, which leads to some brooms falling out, creating a great clatter. Mokuba winced, not good; his brother's room is just next to that cupboard.

As if on cue, the door beside them open, a mussed up brown head popped out, "Keep it down or you're all fired!" he roared.

Undaunted, Shizuka grabbed the front of Seto's pyjama pants, seeing as she was too short to grab his collar, "Where's my brother you baka!" any leftover love had obviously evaporated from her mind as she glowered at the bloodshot eyes of one Kaiba Seto.

"Uh, I don't have him you pip squeak," growled Kaiba.

"Urgh," a moan from the room drew their attention. A very distinctive blonde head bury itself under the covers.

Shizuka paled, "W-who's that with you?"

This immediately perked up Mokuba's flailing attention. He made to look into the room over Shizuka's shoulders, "Really big brother," he drawled, "what kind of example are you setting for us little kids?"

"I, er, that is, this is none of you business! So, go away now,"

"All that 'no sex before marriage' st-"

"Enough already!"

The blonde on the bed gave another muffled groan and curled up pathetically on the bed. "…keep it down, Moneybags…"

Two pairs of very large eyes turned at him, Kaiba flinched. The hell.

With surprising strength, Shizuka pushed pass the brunet, "Oh no, Katsuya! What horrible things has he done on your person?"

"… Sh'zka?"

"Oh no, big brother," Mokuba stage whispered, "how could you?"

"It's not what it looks like,"

"No? You had a fight with Jou last night, with table legs, you call him mutt or dog all the time, and now you…," he paused, "I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at anyway, wake me up when this is all over," ignoring his brother's attempt to catch his attention, he turned a 180 degrees and padded back into his own bed. Nothing is going to get him out of there before 9 a.m.

After convincing Shizuka that he hadn't done any bodily harm (no more than the usual anyway) on the mutt, Kaiba nursed his gathering headache over a cup of coffee. It was then he remembered the doctor's orders. Right, food for Jou, reluctantly, he went through the pantry, searching for food that fits the 'liquid' description. Hmm… Milk is the obvious choice, and pureed banana with yogurt. He searches the pantry further, perhaps some cereal as well?

Balancing everything on a tray, Kaiba proceeded upstairs to his room. It felt strange to knock on his own door, even stranger when a suspicious red head peek out, who had just few hours ago gazed adoringly at his way against the wishes of her brother, excuse me, sister.

"I brought food," he nodded towards the blonde, "The doctor said the mu- Jounouchi needs to eat,"

Satisfied after another minute of glaring, Shizuka opened the door wide enough for him to enter with his tray. An equally suspicious Jou glared from the bed. Kaiba watched as both sisters studied the offering, waiting for their verdict.

Shizuka poked suspiciously at a yellowish lump, "Well, it's dead," she concluded.

"I am not eating that," stated Jou dryly.

"Of course you're not to," answered Shizuka comfortingly, "At least not until _he_ eats it first,"

"Excuse me?"

"For safety purposes, who knows, it might be poisonous," both girls looked up at him expectantly.

"Fine," he spooned a dollop of the gloop; it oozed stubbornly, trying to prevent the spoon from penetrating its icky surface. When Kaiba finally managed to dig some out, it clung onto the spoon for several seconds before dripping back down. So maybe mixing milk, cream, yogurt, cereal and banana puree wasn't one of his most brilliant ideas, still there are ways around problems like this, "Let's order takeout."

Jou stared at the slice of pizza. The thing was mocking her, she was sure of it. No way a piece of food could sit so innocently on a plate, exuding an 'eat me' aura without being evil. She whimpered.

Kaiba glared, "Eat your food," he demonstrated the action by taking a large bite out of his own pizza.

Mokuba looked up curiously from his soda at Jou. "Aren't you hungry?"

"I'm… on a diet?"

At the twin laser glare from Kaiba, she growled, grabbed a bag of fries and stomped off, slamming the door for good measure. Shizuka frowned, picking uneasily at her food.

"Big sister has been moody these days," she said, "Wouldn't eat, I think she's really concern about her weight gain,"

"What weight gain? The mutt's skinnier than a pole and about as curvy as one," said Kaiba viciously, "he even hits like a girl now,"

Smack!!

"I'd say you deserve that, big brother," commented Mokuba dryly.

A dripping wet Kaiba wondered if coke could be washed out of velvet.

The doors slammed again for the second time.

Shizuka found Jounouchi sitting alone in the massive gardens of the Kaiba mansions. She managed to find her after a computer projected Noa directed her to the spot, it was strange to see the green hair boy again after all this time. But she wasn't going to complain against any help to find her Jou. The blonde sat with her knees drawn up to her chest, still wearing the large pyjamas courtesy of Kaiba Seto, a half eaten bag of fries drooped sadly beside her. Shizuka settled herself beside her ex-brother.

After letting quietness reign for a while, she ventured, "You know, Kaiba-san was really worried,"

Jounouchi snorted.

"Really! Well, he doesn't show it much," she pressed on diligently, " but Mokuba and I have been talking about it, he did buy pizza for breakfast, and he knows you like fast food, and pizza stores don't usually open until ten, and we got them at eight thirty this morning,"

Jou muttered something about 'Mokuba'.

"Have you seen Mokuba's box lunches? I swear he eats more vegetables than a rabbit,"

More dark mutterings from Jou.

"Anyway, this isn't what I'm here to talk about," when Jou did not answer her, she went on, "Are you going to go on as a boy? It's not healthy for you, you know, and cutting food isn't going to make them smaller," she gestured vaguely at the direction of Jou's chest.

Jou glared, "What would you know!"

"I'm a girl! A full time one, of course I would know!" snapped back Shizuka, poking one of Jou's breast, "it doesn't matter how much you eat, or don't eat, they will grow as much as your genetics allow it, and unless you can change that, well there's really nothing you can do about them,"

"So, what now?"

"It all depends on you," a new voice interrupted them, it was Mokuba, he settled himself beside Jou, "do you want to go on as a guy, or do you want to go as a girl?"

"I-"

"You can think about it first, as a girl, you can still be 'Jou' you know, one who likes sports and stuff, but don't have to withhold food."

"…What would my friends say?"

Both younger siblings rolled their eyes, "Yugi had a spirit living inside of him, Bakura has a psycho spirit inside of him, my brother's a reincarnated priest, I think the thought of you as a closet girl won't be too much of a surprise,"

"…Okay,"

"Okay?"

"I'll do it!" Jou stood up abruptly, "I have made up my mind, from now on, I will live as a g-girl," she punched the air weakly.

Mokuba and Shizuka duly clapped their hands.

Lurking in the bushes, Kaiba Seto snorted quietly at the ridiculous display.

And so it was decided.

They planned on shopping first, at Mokuba and Shizuka's suggestion, before informing the rest of the gang. It took no time at all to get the limo and Kaiba ready. They had to prod Katsuya a bit more to get her out of the house, and into the car, in one of Shizuka's spare dresses. The blonde had gotten so thin that the dress actually looked loose on her, albeit a bit on the short side. Kaiba had glared and sniffed at the sneakers on Jou's feet, who threatened to plant them into Kaiba's face the next time he even _look_ at her shoes the wrong way.

The ride to the mall was silent, despite the younger siblings' best effort.

Everyone was relieved when the limo pulled into one of Domino's largest shopping malls. Shizuka and Mokuba scrambled out quickly, pulling Jou between them. Shizuka lead the way to one of the many colourful boutiques in the building where they had a fantastic time shoving Jou into skirts blouses and watching her totter on high heeled boots.

Once, they even managed to get her into a mini skirt, a sailor theme blouse and leg warmers complete with pompoms. Kaiba discreetly snapped a picture with his camera phone without any of them knowing.They went for shoes next, then ditching the boys; Shizuka took her sister underwear shopping.

"I feel like a pervert," muttered Jou, tugging miserably at a bra strap.

"You're a girl, it'd be weird if you don't wear them," she picked a strawberry patterned bra with matching panties, "here, try these,"

Jou made a face of horror, "But-,"

"You want to be a girl, right?"

"Uh, let me think about that for a sec-"

"Girls _enjoy_ wearing nice underwear,"

"Can't I have plain ones instead?" begged Jou.

But Shizuka was merciless, she pushed the reluctant blonde into one of the dressing rooms, armed with lacy, pretty, pretty bras.

"These are designers," Shizuka said, tossing bra after bra over the door, "cost a fortune, we should take advantage of Kaiba now and buy them,"

"Shizuka…"

"Did you know I have to limit myself to one new bra every three months?"

"…it's just lace and cloth!"

"Hush!" hissed her sister, " what blasphemy! We are girls, and these are investments for our assets!"

"I'm starting to regret this," muttered Jou as a particularly racy pair of panties landed on her head.

"Cheer up," said Shizuka happily, "we are sisters and we are shopping on other people's credit, how much better can it be?"

At the cafeteria, amidst mountains of bags filled with… stuff, Kaiba meditatively rearrange some facts in his life. One, magic does exist in this world, courtesy of his encounters with Yami Yugi, Evil Bakura and personal experiences with the Past Life Phenomenon. Two, the mutt Jou turned out to be a closet female, he gingerly touched his stomach where Jou had jabbed him with a table leg yesterday. Had it just been twenty four hours ago when life was fine and dandy and _normal_?

The third part of his reality check, one which he had never studied closely before due to various reasons, were wet dreams, (ugh, he felt dirty just thinking about it!) starring one vivacious blonde whose initials began with JK. As Kaiba calmly and methodically examine his reactions and certain _frisson_ in the air whenever the said blonde was within striking range, he had to admit that it all points to that damning word, 'Attraction'. Which is okay, because even though Jou's a proletariat, a third rate duellist, a mutt (or a bitch, whatever), Jounouchi Katsuya is still one hundred percent _female,_ and it's okay for Kaiba to be attracted to him since he's actually a _girl_.

_Yessssss!!!_

At the decisive look on his face, Mokuba smiled innocently, "Nii-sama, are you thinking about Jou-chan?"

"Hm?"

"Aa, it's really nice that Katsu-neechan is a girl, then I will have a big sister, right?"

"Um."

"I wonder who Jou-chan will marry in the future…"

At the dreamy look on his brother's face, Mokuba continues to smile innocently while discreetly press the send button on his mobile.

_Get, set, Go!_

At a safe distance from the brothers, Shizuka checked her message gleefully, safe in the knowledge of Seto's dawning realization of his own attraction to her sister. Thank goodness all her bento attempts did not go to waste. While it did little to make Katsu-chan jealous, it did help Kaiba to pay more attention to Katsu-chan whether he realizes it or not.

Now, time for plan B, "Nee-sama, are you done yet? We are meeting Mokuba-kun and Kaiba-kun in ten minutes!"

Some dark mutterings floated from the closet, Shizuka decided to interpret that as a yes.

After paying for their purchases (with Kaiba's credit card, no less) Shizuka took a moment to admire her new and improved sister. A sporty looking shirt on top of a golfing skirt and knee high white boots gave Jou a smart, hours-to-get-it-right casual look that found mostly in trendy magazines. Golden locks brushed down just a bit, a blue and white cap tops the outfit. Now if only she could stop fidgeting.

"Calm down, you look fine,"

"I feel like a damn pervert in a skirt…"

"You're a _girl,_ you are will within your rights to wear a skirt."

"This bra thing is itching…"

"Katsu-chan…"

"I still don't think the th-thong thing is really-"

"Quite tugging on it or people will stare!" That stops the fidgeting. Although it didn't help much, since Jou immediately froze on spot, and began to stare suspiciously at random passer bys.

"People are staring at me!" she whispered fiercely.

Shizuka sighed, grabbing one slender arm, "That's because you're a beautiful girl, freaking out in the middle of the road, they are probably hoping you'd faint or something so that they can rescue you,"

"Boys actually think like that?!" Jou looked positively scandalized.

"Well…"

"Let's leave, and quickly!"

"Okay," now that Jou is moving on her own accord, Shizuka decide not to inform her of the possible error in that statement.


	8. Chapter 8

8_Mysterious Ankh

The day could not get any worse Shizuka had reassured her. Nothing bad will happen.

Yeah right.

Worse turned up in the form of Yugi and Anzu.

Worst still, they were tagged by Honda and Pretty Face.

Jou was ready to hyperventilate.

She would have run away, using those infamous long legs which had won her numerous awards. If the Team hadn't already spotted them.

"Hai Kaiba! Hey Mokuba!"

"Shizuka! The light of my life…"

Jou quickly duck behind Kaiba, don't see me, don't see me, don't see me-

"And who's your friend?" Anzu's head popped around, peeking over Kaiba's arm.

"GYAAAH!!" Jou freaked out, dashed to the nearest window and leaped outside.

"Erm…" Anzu flinching from Kaiba's glare, "was it something I said?"

"Ahahaha, not to worry, it was our very shy, very abnormal, er, pre-school friend, right, Kawai?" Mokuba banged heartily on Shizuka's back, nearly sending her sprawling.

"Touch me and die, little man," snarled Shizuka.

"Oooh, scary, like any one with a smidgeon of taste would,"

"Choke on your tongue and die, Frodo,"

Kaiba glared at them as the bickering rise in volume, "Quiet down or you will find yourself on a desert island without a single electrode to make a light bulb." Mokuba actually froze, Shizuka sniggered, "and you," he tried to think up a suitable punishment, "… I shall speak to Jounouchi about you,"

Shizuka stuck out her tongue, much to the amusement of the others.

Honda, who could no longer contain himself burst out, "So who's the chick who threw herself out the window?"

This time, Shizuka froze and paled.

Kaiba, to his credit, did not even let an eyebrow quiver, he turn to glare at Anzu.

"That," he said, "was my girlfriend you scare off,"

Complete and total silence fell, as onlookers pretending not to be listening froze with Yugi and co.

"You're insane,"

Kaiba shrugged off his coat.

"You're insane," repeat Shizuka, as though Kaiba did not have superb hearing along with an excellent sense of fashion, "you're insane and have a death wish,"

"I'm afraid I would have to agree with Kawai on this one, bro," Mokuba snorted, "You think Jou would appreciate this?"

"My sister will kill you in your sleep, poison your well water and make your miserable life worse then death,"

Kaiba sniffed, "The puppy is too insignificant for that," he paused, "and I do not own a well,"

That stumped Shizuka a little, just for a while, "well, you're still insane," she declared.

They had gotten to the car by now, laden with shopping, Mokuba popped the trunk and was loading the bags in when something snatched at his ankle. His scream echoed off the parking lot, making Kaiba and Shizuka jumped in surprise. A blonde head poke out from beneath the car.

"Jou," wheezed Mokuba, "I'm going to kill you,"

"Shhh," hissed Jou frantically, still gripping Mokuba's leg, "Shhh! Shhh!"

"I'll 'shhh' you, bastard," hissed Mokuba, doing his best to restrain himself from stomping on Jou's face.

"Nee-sama!" cried Shizuka happily, "we wondered what happened to you,"

"Mm," said Kaiba.

"Just get me outta here!" whimpered Jou, "There's a lotta weird people, keep wanting ta get near ta me, freakn' freak stuff,"

Kaiba note that Jou's accent had grown worse.

They managed to make it home without anymore incident; Shizuka immediately commandeered a room for herself and Katsuya to play dress up. Kaiba and Mokuba worked quietly in Kaiba's office, until the door burst open to reveal Shizuka and a blushing skinny Jou, in swim suits. Kaiba immediately dashed for the bathroom, drops of blood trailed the floor behind him.

Jou rolled her eyes, "Always knew he's a pervert."

Shizuka giggled.

School day dawn bright and cheerful, there were some shouts of hellos and greetings and people rushing about to get last minute homework done. A little beyond the gate of the school a sleek limousine stood. Within the limousine, a small battle was being wrought.

"Come. On." Kaiba snarled, "We. Are going. To be late!" he accentuated the each pause with sharp pulls at the blonde. He had an arm around the flat tone stomach, and was not thinking about licking her belly button.

"N-O," Jou snarled back, claws dug determinedly into the leather.

Kaiba was too intent on getting Jou out of the car to notice, or care about the tearing leather, he could afford a million leather seats after all. This brings him to the matter at hand…

"Mokuba and the female had already left, it's just us now, the bell will-" the school bell choose that moment to shriek, "-ring,"

"No!"

Well the puppy had always been stubborn, hah, but he, the Great Kaiba Seto is not a genius for nothing, feigning surprise, and he said very casually, "Oh, look, is that Yugi heading here?"

Jou reflexively froze. Kaiba took the chance to bodily haul her out of the car. Tearing sounds could be heard; the limousine driver winced at the sound of expensive material rendered useless even as Kaiba celebrates his triumph by indulging himself in something he had dreamt of doing ever since he saw that body encased in skirt.

Kaiba raised his hand, and brought it quickly down against the skinny rump.

There was a loud crack, and a deafening scream.

Kaiba estimated that Jou's outraged screamed could be heard within fifty miles, he idly wondered if she would scream like this in bed. All thoughts soon cease as claws which had dug determinedly in his leather chairs, targeted his back. Fortunately, school uniforms aren't as yielding as leather, the clawing was unpleasant, but not painful, and before any damage to his skin happen, salvation appear.

"Oh, hi, Yugi," he greeted casually, as though he greeted the midget everyday, as though appearing with a girl slung over his shoulder was something quite regular.

"Think I'm gonna fall fer that twice ya' miserable moneybags!?" screeched his bundle.

"Er, hi, um, Kaiba,"

The wriggling bundle stopped moving.

"Hello, Yugi," Kaiba greeted politely

"Er, er, is that, er, a girl?"

Kaiba glared haughtily at the midget, projecting immense amount of dignity "I believe so,"

"So, ehem, may I enquire," the glare says no, but Yugi pressed on bravely, "Um, why is she slung over your shoulder?"

"Ah," said Kaiba enigmatically, he loved being enigmatic! "Ah," he said again, just to get the proper feel of it, "This is-"

"YUGI!!" screeched his bundle, which somehow managed to wriggle out of his grasp and went sobbing into a bewildered Yugi's arms. "It's so horrible!" she wailed, "So terrible, so tragic!"

"…" Yugi looked helplessly at Kaiba, who was not too happy at their close proximity.

"Er…"

"So," Otogi placed the tips of his fingers together, "so, this is all very interesting,"

Yugi put a comforting hand on Jou's arm, "it's alright, and you did the right thing by telling us,"

"After all," put in Anzu, "we are all your friends," she paused, "by the way, sorry about scaring you out the window,"

"To think," said Ryou dreamily, "there are actually curses which Bakura had yet to encounter," he smiled at Jou, "this is a most extraordinary time delayed spell of the combined usage of the dark artefacts, perhaps we could-"

"Perhaps you should shut up," said Kaiba.

"Oh, er, well, sorry Jou" he said, "of course, it's a fascinating study, but um, we could talk about it some other time,"

"So," Jou was literally wringing her hands, "so, this is all alright with you guys?"

"Yeah," said Honda brightly, "if we have 3000 year old spirits possessing our friends and threatened utter chaos to the world, this is practically nothing!"

"Yes," said Anzu encouragingly, "In fact, with all ancient super artefacts floating around Domino, why it's only a matter of time one of us stumbled onto a gender altering ankh!"

Kaiba coughed discreetly into his hand.

It was scary how things became almost normal after that. Jou became 'Jou-chan' to her friends, Jounosoto Katsuko was smuggled into the education systems. Although how any idiot could be believed that such a name existed, or how unimaginative the CEO of a gaming company could be. Really, changing her name from 'within the city' to 'outside the city'? And the very suspicious switch from 'ya' to 'ko' at the end of her name?

Of course, this is also the very same town which took no notice of cloaked figures wondering about maiming people and sending them into the funny farm by the truckloads. Oh, not to mention billionaire CEOs attending classes pretending to be normal teens. Sometimes she wondered how most of them stayed sane through their formative years in domino city.

"Jou-chan!"

Of course, there are also idiots who use to be her friends who tried to hit on her now, after screaming in horror at the memory of dancing around naked in the locker room in front of a _girl_. Please, as if anything could shock her, really. A cutting remark was on her tongue, ready to spring out and shred Honda to pieces, when a heavy hand descends on her shoulder.

"It is time to leave,"

Oh yes, and how could she have forgotten Kaiba The Caveman Seto, who refuses to be reasonable and refute his 'girlfriend' claim on her. Jou turned her cutting remark at the Caveman.

"Go away!"

Ok, so it wasn't exactly extraordinary in terms of depth and witticism, but it's straight forward! Jou punctuated the remark with a growl.

She is so cute. Kaiba's mind supplied unnecessarily even as it processed the growling, and the glaring and the unbelievably adorable way the school uniform draped on her form. Also, the short skirts, which he _knew_ covered some expensive, pretty underwear, he had just gotten his credit card statement that morning.

Too bad Kawai didn't know his credit card listed _all_ the things that it's spent on. Kaiba was dying to know what most of them look like on the blonde. He'd spent a lovely evening going through the net, checking up on mysterious things like 'Victoria's Secret', teddies and other assorted things. It was all very expensive, therefore Kaiba felt that as the main sponsor, he was entitled to, ahem, examine the goods.

Of course, to do that he would have to be more than just friends with the blonde, which was perfectly fine with him, Kaiba smiled, he spent most of last night practicing, "You look great today,"

A remark taken straight out of dating manual 101, not that anyone had to know.

Jou scowled, "Get away from me yah freak,"

Kaiba held on grimly to his smile, "Oh, I'm good too, what do you say we head over to MacKinnon's for lunch, hmm?"

Jou hissed like a wet cat.

"I heard their beef plate sets are to die for," his eye lids lowered, and he leaned closer, "Seared to perfection, with all the trimmings you want…"

Jou twitched.

"… and I haven't started on their dessert menu yet…"


End file.
